Headache with Fibre Channel SAN and MPIO

[AB_IT]

Hey All,

 

Not sure what I'm doing wrong here but basically we have two older servers we've recently just wiped and put Windows Server 2022 on. We have connected the SAN back up to both servers and the SANs software is setup correctly. I've also used MPIO in order to share the storage between them both as it will be used as a failover cluster. However I'm running into an issue where DR1 seems fine and upon loading Disk Management shows I only have one Disk per array which is how I'd expect. Though the other server (setup the same) is showing 2 Disks per array which obviously don't exist if that makes sense. I'm not sure why DR2 is duplicating these in Disk Management.

 

Is anyone able to shed some light on this or give me a hand. I've taken screenshots from the one that's working properly and the one that isn't. MPIO does look different but it's automatically setup so I can't change this to reflect the same on both... or maybe I can? They're connected via Fibre Channel.

 

Thanks All

 

DR1 (working)

 

 

 

DR2 (showing two disks instead of 1)

 

[dfergusson]

Hi

 

Think the following guide below might point you in the right direction. it's been sometime since I've last worked with MPIO, but looking at your photo on DR2 you seem to have not added IBM 1746 as it not showing as listed under MPIO devices.

 

https://www.itpromentor.com/hvc-mpio-storage/

https://kb.promise.com/thread/enabling-multipathing-mpio-on-windows-server-2019/

Edited May 2, 2024 by dfergusson

[AB_IT]

Hi

 

Think the following guide below might point you in the right direction. it's been sometime since I've last worked with MPIO, but looking at your photo on DR2 you seem to have not added IBM 1746 as it not showing as listed under MPIO devices.

 

https://www.itpromentor.com/hvc-mpio-storage/

https://kb.promise.com/thread/enabling-multipathing-mpio-on-windows-server-2019/

 

Hey, thank you for this. DR1 added the entries automatically as did DR2, they're both setup the same. I'm not sure how to manually add IBM 1746 to the entry, do you have any idea? I've read through those links - thanks for them but it doesn't seem to fix the issue.

[Steve21]

MPIO will show all routes to a single disk, so if you have two routes without MPIO it'll replicate it twice as such (If you had 4 routes you'd have 4 copies etc)

 

Regarding adding it in, on that "Discover" page, the IBMs at the bottom and needs you to click "Add" after selecting it

 

Should then just reboot it once more and if MPIO is working it'll only show the 1 disk

 

Steve

[AB_IT]

Thanks Steve, I've done that and it all looks good in Disk Management. Only seeing one disk now on both hosts. Can't believe I was so stupid.

 

I've now tried bringing the disks online in Disk Management but it just comes up with an 'Incorrect Function' error and I can't bring them online? Any ideas, giving m a right headache

 

Edit: I somehow got them online on the one server. But now when I try to initialize the disc it gives me the same error 'Incorrect Function' from the Disk Manager and the following from PowerShell command

 

Edited May 3, 2024 by AB_IT

[pablo007]

Thanks Steve, I've done that and it all looks good in Disk Management. Only seeing one disk now on both hosts. Can't believe I was so stupid.

 

I've now tried bringing the disks online in Disk Management but it just comes up with an 'Incorrect Function' error and I can't bring them online? Any ideas, giving m a right headache

 

Edit: I somehow got them online on the one server. But now when I try to initialize the disc it gives me the same error 'Incorrect Function' from the Disk Manager and the following from PowerShell command

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]71442[/ATTACH]

With mpio enabled they should only be online on one server IRC but visible to all hosts in the cluster via a csv.

[AB_IT]

With mpio enabled they should only be online on one server IRC but visible to all hosts in the cluster via a csv.

Thank you. That's how it looks so on DR1 the storage is showing as online but on DR2 it shows as offline. It's when I try to initialize the disk in order to be able to use it on Failover Cluster Manager is when I get the errors above. It all looks fine it's basically only when I try to initialize the disks. Any ideas?

[Homer]

Have you tried to initialise/format the disks on DR1, then add them in to the cluster from there as a CSV? Until this, you'll get weird stuff going on across both hosts.

[pablo007]

Thank you. That's how it looks so on DR1 the storage is showing as online but on DR2 it shows as offline. It's when I try to initialize the disk in order to be able to use it on Failover Cluster Manager is when I get the errors above. It all looks fine it's basically only when I try to initialize the disks. Any ideas?

 

 

edit can you screenshot the disk manager for server 1 ?

Edited May 7, 2024 by pablo007

[AB_IT]

I got it all working in the end but all it did was constantly throw up a BSOD on me. i think the server and drivers are just too old to run reliably on Win Server 2022. We've decided to decomission it.

 

Thanks all for your help though

[3s-gtech]

I had similar with an old HP G6 - it wasn’t stable on 2022. Got it running on 2019 (it’s a replica Hyper-V host) but it’s ancient so its days are numbered.

[Homer]

I had 2022 just not get on with some old Dell R815s (Opterons) - would BSOD at random. They tick along alright on 2019 though!