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emilysam

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emilysam

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May 1st, 2006 20:00

660F on Windows 2003 in Direct Attach?

I have seen several posts about the lack of support for the 660F/224F in a SAN environment.  However, does anyone have info on support of the 660F in a direct-attach environment?  Not sure if that makes any difference at all.  We have a PE2650 w/ QL2200 HBA.  SANsurfer sees everything fine but no love from array manager or disk manager.   Can anyone tell me definitively if I will ever get this to work under Windows Server 2003?
 
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
  • Dev Mgr

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    Posted May 2nd, 2006 12:00

    The latest/last Dell SAN support matrix can be found here.

    It doesn't include Windows 2003.

    If you're not concerned with failover, the only 2 things you'd have to work on are a Qlogic driver that will work with array manager to see and monitor the PV660F. As for which driver, it's a little hard to say, but the last matrix shows for Windows 2000 an old 7-series driver. I suspect that that driver won't work with Windows 2003 though.

    You can try some of the older 8-series drivers if you can find them on the Qlogic site and see if you can get lucky on a combination of driver and array manager that will work to see the PV660F in array manager.
  • Storagetalk

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    Posted May 3rd, 2006 11:00

    In order for a PV660 to work with Windows 2003 you would need to be running SAN 5.3 software/config:
     
    660 Raid Controler Version - 7.82
    QL2200 driver - 8.00.09.24
    QL2200 BIOS - 1.76
    Array Manager 3.4
    Storage C (if needed) - 5.00.37
    QMSJ (not QLConfig) - 2.0.11
     
    All but the Raid Controler are included on the SAN 5.3 CD.  But you can't buy those from Dell anymore.  You'd need to dig for that.
     
    You might be able to get away with a SAN 4 config, but it's the driver comm to the RC that's going to be the ultimate deciding factor.
  • Storagetalk

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    Posted May 3rd, 2006 12:00

    If you don't already have a 7.82 raid controler then don't bother looking for any SAN 5.3 SW.  The 7.82 raid controler is key.  You can't flash a 660 raid controler to a new version, so you'd need the actual 7.82 raid controler part.
  • emilysam

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    Posted May 3rd, 2006 12:00

    Thanks for the info.  That is precisely what I was looking for.  Now the arduous task of tracking down everything on that list. 
  • emilysam

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    Posted May 8th, 2006 16:00

    Thanks.  In this case, there will be no data on the array.  It's being prepped for a new Disk to Disk backup staging area.  That said, I am going to modify the setup a bit and just run the Media Server software for the D2D application on Windows 2000 since it is supported by the 660F.  Thanks all for the excellent information.
  • bltserv

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    Posted May 8th, 2006 16:00

    660F can be flashed to whatever version.

    But you must have the correct .ima file.

    So yes, you can go from 7.51 to 7.76 or 7.82

    You will need 7.82 for it to work in 2003

  • Storagetalk

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    Posted May 8th, 2006 16:00

    Ok, I was a bit misinformed.  7.51 to 7.76 is ok.  7.76 to 7.82 can be a little iffy.  I guess if you're talking about there being no data...then you have nothing to lose.  If there's data on the array and you want to upgrade...then flashing the FW could cause you to lose your data.

    Sorry, my mistake on my understanding on the RC's for the 660.

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    Posted May 8th, 2006 23:00

    I'm in a similar situation where I purchased a 660F from a client when they upgraded to a 220F, and I have it directly attached with a QLA2200 HBA. I've got SANSurfer installed, and successfully bound the HBA to the SAN, even was a far as creating a virtual disk, but I the option to create a volume is greyed out. I'm using Windows 2003, with firmware 7.76 on the RAID controllers, bios 1.83/firmware 2.02.03, and QLDirect driver 8.01.12 on the HBA.
     
    How can I go about getting firmware 7.82? I desperately want to get this working on Windows 2003!
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    Posted May 9th, 2006 02:00

    After some snooping around on dell's storage-sw FTP folder I came across StorageC 4.0, which installed and allowed me to bring the virtual disk online then create a volume, so all is well.
     
    Now I'm somewhat of a newbie to SANs - can I hook another server w/ HBA to the other controller on the 660F and have it use the same volume, or can you only have it use space on the virtual disk and create a volume seperate than the volume being used by the other server?
  • Storagetalk

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    Posted May 9th, 2006 10:00

    Technically, Storage C 4.0 is for Windows 2000.  You would need Storage C 5.0 for 2003.  But if it's working...good deal.  But don't be surprised if every now and then you have to remask a lun or two.
     
    Yes you can hook it up...but you'll have to access a different volume.  Otherwise, you'd have two servers accessing the same volume at the same time....data collision....corruption.