Well, I did it.  Took the Summer off again from blogging.  I’ve been having fun in my Jeep, catching some waves at the beach and just trying to get the energy levels flowing for the Fall.  So what’s new?  Well for one, Varrow was acquired by Sirius Computer Solutions so I am still with them and continue to do what I do best.  Bring the world of storage to you, my readers of technology.

Recently I have been tasked to help out on several IBM AIX hosts attaching to XtremIO.  I don’t always admit it, but AIX used to be my Jam back in the day.  So I was quite excited when someone called me up and said they were having trouble with AIX seeing some LUNs from XtremIO so I began to help.  Essentially there are some steps you need to take in AIX to make everything look right and happy before you can start using LVM and carving out storage for applications.  Now, I’m not gonna get into all of that here, but I wanted to give some basics on updating EMC ODM Definitions in AIX, and installing EMC Powerpath.  Now this isn’t a be-all to end-all guide, but it should get you up and going pretty quick.  I will defer to the “AIX Host Connectivity Guide” and “Powerpath for AIX installation guide” for a complete and concise way of installing things, but I wanted to type these steps up for future use.  So here we go.

Technical Summary (EMC software installation):

We will start by insuring XtremIO is properly zoned, configured and presenting disks to the AIX hosts according to the Host Connectivity Guide for AIX from EMC. After this is complete, we will need to install storage definition files for AIX called “ODM”s. After the ODM installation is complete, we will install powerpath and reboot the host.

AIX EMC ODM Installation:
· Grab EMC ODM Defs from ftp.emc.com
· cd /pub/elab/aix/ODM_DEFINITIONS
· get EMC.AIX.5.3.1.0.tar.gz
· gunzip EMC.AIX.5.3.1.0.tar.gz
· tar -xvf EMC.AIX.5.3.1.0.tar
· rm .toc
· inutoc .
· installp -ad . EMC.XtremIO.aix.rte
· installp -ad . EMC.XtremIO.fcp.rte

Powerpath Install:
· Grab Current Powerpath from support.emc.com. Search for powerpath aix under downloads. For AIX 6.1-7.1 as of August, 2015 the most current is EMCPower.AIX.6.0.GA.b159
· gunzip EMCPower.AIX.6.0.GA.b159.tar.gz *or current version
· tar -xvf EMCPower.AIX.6.0.GA.b159.tar
· inutoc .
· installp -agXd . EMCpower
· powermt version *verifies version.
· Once installed, reboot host

Powerpath Registration:
If you are upgrading from an earlier version of PowerPath, you do not need to reregister. PowerPath will use your existing license key if necessary, converting the old 12-character license key to a 24-character key.
1. To register the PowerPath software, type:
· emcpreg -install
· follow prompts
At the end of the registration, you should see an output that says “1 Key(s) successfully registered”

Powerpath Basic Commands:
powermt version *displays current version
powermt –h *displays help for command
powermt display *displays HBA info
powermt display dev=all| more *displays device/lun information.

Here is an example output of powermt display dev=all. Note “Pseudo Name”, this is the name you will use when carving out storage in AIX LVM.

Pseudo name=hdiskpower0
XtremIO ID=FNMXXXXXXXX
Logical device ID=514F0C5430600006 [CUSTOMERPOC_1]
state=alive; policy=ADaptive; queued-IOs=0
==============================================================================
————— Host ————— – Stor – — I/O Path — — Stats —
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
==============================================================================
—– Host Bus Adapters ——— —— I/O Paths —– —— Stats ——
### HW Path Summary Total Dead IO/Sec Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
0 fscsi2 optimal 10 0 – 0 0
1 fscsi3 optimal 10 0 – 0 0

So there you have it!  Hope this helps someone.

@sangeek