[Linux-cluster] live & standby (primary & secondary partitions) in "multipath -ll"

[Wendy Cheng]

sunhux G wrote:
>  
> Thanks Wendy, that answered my original question.
>  
> I should have rephrased my question :
>  
> I received an alert email from Filer1 :
> "autosupport.doit             FCP PARTNER PATH MISCONFIGURED"
>  
> when our outsourced DBA built the Oracle ASM & ocfs2 partitions on
> /dev/sdc1, /dev/sdd1, /dev/sde1, /dev/sdf1 & /dev/sdg1 & I suspected
> this is related to building the partitions on the "enabled" (ie standby)
> partitions as shown by "multipath -ll".  After we got the DBA to wipe
> out & rebuild the ASM/ocfs2 on those partitions that are listed under
> "prio 8" by "multipath -ll" (see lines indicated by ** in my 1st email),
> the error of "FCP partner path misconfigured" cleared.
>  
Funny that you got Netapp cluster questions answered on Linux-cluster 
mailing list :) ...

Anyway, assume your filers are on Data Ontap 10.x releases and they are 
clustered ? The action you'd taken *is* correct. For details, check out: 
https://now.netapp.com/Knowledgebase/solutionarea.asp?id=kb30541 where 
the issue is documented.  Let me know if you can't access to the KB 
article.

"Hosts (linux) should, under normal circumstances, only access LUNs 
through ports on the cluster node which hosts the LUN. I/O paths that 
utilize the ports of the cluster node that host the LUN are referred to 
as primary paths or optimized paths. I/O paths that utilize the partner 
cluster node are known as secondary paths, partner paths or 
non-optimized paths. A LUN should only be accessed through the partner 
cluster node when the primary ports are unavailable. I/O access to LUNs 
using a secondary path indicates one or both of the following 
conditions: the primary path(s) between host and storage controller have 
failed, or host MPIO software is not configured correctly. These 
conditions indicate that the redundancy and performance of the SAN has 
been compromised. Corrective action should be taken immediately to 
restore primary paths to the storage controllers. "

-- Wendy