How To Install and Config EMC PowerPath on Linux

PowerPath is EMC licensed software for managing SAN attached storage on your systems. In this post we will cover how to install, license and scan for newly attached storage.

Prerequisites :
Download the PowerPath software from EMC Powerlink website. If you’ve purchased EMC support, you should have access to Powerlink.

For RHEL 4
EMCpower.LINUX-5.3.0.00.00-185.rhel.x86_64.rpm
EMCpower.LINUX-5.3.0.00.00-185.rhel.i386.rpm

For RHEL 5 / 6
5.7.SP5/EMCPower.LINUX-5.7.5.00.00-002.RHEL5.x86_64.rpm
5.7.SP5/EMCPower.LINUX-5.7.5.00.00-002.RHEL6.x86_64.rpm

Before you start EMC powerpath installation and configuration, make sure HBA cards are installed on the server and Fiber channel switches are zoned properly.

1. Before install power path ,modify the lvm.conf file filter options

#vi /etc/lvm/lvm.conf
filter =[ "a|/dev/cciss|", "a|/dev/emc|", "r/.*/" ]

Note : Modify the filter as needed using standard shell-scripting regular   
expressions. For example, to include partitions sda1 to sda9 for LVM2 while filtering out the remaining sd device nodes, set the filter  field to filter=["a/sda[1-9]$/", "r/sd*/", "a/.*/"]. 

2. Rebuild the LVM2 cache. Enter:

# vgscan -v 

3.Verify the filter is working fine

# lvmdiskscan

4. Recreate the initrd image to reflect the changes to the /etc/lvm/lvm.conf file. Enter:

# mkinitrd

( ex  - /sbin/mkinitrd -v -f /boot/initrd-2.6.18-164.el5.img  initrd-2.6.18-164.el5 )

1. Install EMC Powerpath

# rpm -ivh EMCPower.LINUX-5.7.5.00.00-002.RHEL5.x86_64.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:EMCpower.LINUX ########################################### [100%]

All trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.
NOTE:License registration is not required to manage the CLARiiON AX series array.

2. Register EMC Powerpath

Before you can use the EMC powerpath software, you should register it using the EMC Powerpath License key received when you purchased the software from EMC. Use emcpreg tool to install EMC Powerpath license key as shown below.

# emcpreg -install

===========   EMC PowerPath Registration ===========
Do you have a new registration key or keys to enter?[n] y
Enter the registration keys(s) for your product(s),
one per line, pressing Enter after each key.
After typing all keys, press Enter again.

Key (Enter if done): **emc-powerpath-license-key**
1 key(s) successfully added.
Key successfully installed.

Key (Enter if done):
Key  is invalid, ignored.
Try again or press Enter if done.
1 key(s) successfully registered.

3. Verify EMC Powerpath Registration

Use EMC powermt command to check the registration as shown below.

# powermt check_registration

Key **emc-powerpath-license-key**
Product: PowerPath
Capabilities: All

4. Start the Power path service

# /etc/init.d/PowerPath start

5. Scan for storage

In this example we are using an Emulex fiber card and the device is contained in  /sys/class/scsi_host/. To get the fiber card to go out and scan for any added storage. There are several ways to accomplish this task.

# cd /sys/class/scsi_host/
# echo "- - -" >

My favorite using a for loop.

# cd /sys/class/scsi_host/
# for i in `ls`; do echo "- - -" > $i/scan; done

Next steps are to make PowerPath update the luns. This is done suing the powermt command.

# powermt update lun_names
# powermt config
# powermt save

6. Verify Multiple Paths using below commands

Once you’ve installed EMC powerpath, execute powermt display dev=all as shown below to verify whether multiple paths as displayed accordingly.

# powermt display dev=all 
Pseudo name=emcpowerac
Symmetrix ID=000290103691
Logical device ID=15AA
state=alive; policy=SymmOpt; priority=0; queued-IOs=0;
==============================================================================
--------------- Host ---------------   - Stor -   -- I/O Path --  -- Stats ---
###  HW Path               I/O Paths    Interf.   Mode    State   Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
   2 qla2xxx                  sdaa      FA 10aA   active  alive       0      0
   3 qla2xxx                  sdbe      FA  7aA   active  alive       0      0
   4 qla2xxx                  sdci      FA 13aA   active  alive       0      0
   5 qla2xxx                  sddm      FA  4aA   active  alive       0      0

Pseudo name=emcpowerab
Symmetrix ID=000290103691
Logical device ID=1628
state=alive; policy=SymmOpt; priority=0; queued-IOs=0;
==============================================================================
--------------- Host ---------------   - Stor -   -- I/O Path --  -- Stats ---
###  HW Path               I/O Paths    Interf.   Mode    State   Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
   2 qla2xxx                  sdab      FA 10aA   active  alive       0      0
   3 qla2xxx                  sdbf      FA  7aA   active  alive       0      0
   4 qla2xxx                  sdcj      FA 13aA   active  alive       0      0
   5 qla2xxx                  sddn      FA  4aA   active  alive       0      0

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