This is all covered in the vSphere Storage Guide which I will aim to summarise here. ESXi uses storage APIs known as the Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) to manage storage multipathing. Useful terms to understand in relation to PSA include:
The basics of setting up EMC Powerpath on Linux on new installations. EMC PowerPath is used to manage the multipath logical unit number (LUN) presented to a server from the storage area network. It dynamically load balances over multiple fibre controllers and provides automatic fail over in the event a path or controller fails. PowerPath and PowerPath/VE for Windows Installation and Administration Guide 11 Preface Technical support —For technical support, go to EMC Online Support and select Service Center. On the Support page, you will see several options, including one to create a service request.
- PSA – Pluggable Storage Architecture
- NMP – Native Multipathing Plugin
- PSP – Path Selection Plugin – Handles path selection
- SATP – Storage Array Type Plugin – Handles path failover for a storage array
The default NMP plugin provided by VMware has 2 sub-plugins – SATPs and PSPs. These are also provided by VMware, although there are also third party ones available. In addition, a third party may also make their own multipathing plugin available, which can replace VMware’s NMP. EMC PowerPath is an example of this.
Installing a PSA Plugin
Emc Powerpath Installation Guide Windows
As stated above, PowerPath is an example of a PSA plugin you may want to install. It’s recommended that you put the host into maintenance mode before installing the plugin. After downloading the PowerPath/VE trial, extract the contents of the zip file. You can download the software here. Once you have extracted the files, copy the locate the VMware zip file and secure copy the files to the host. You could also upload the files to a vMA or to another server with vCLI installed.
Emc Powerpath Installation Guide Aix
PowerPath See the PowerPath/VE Installation and Administration Guide for details to migrate licenses from the legacy PowerPath management appliance to a single PowerPath management appliance instance on AMP Central. If the PowerPath/VE license server requires an IP address change, see. PowerPath and PowerPath/VE for Windows Installation and Administration Guide 11 Preface Technical support —For technical support, go to EMC Online Support and select Service Center. On the Support page, you will see several options, including one to create a service request. The PowerPath forum is a public community for discussions and information about this EMC multipathing solution for VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual environments. PowerPath automates multipathing policies to optimize load balancing, ensure seamless data path failover and recovery, and provide comprehensive I/O visibility from host to.
Place host in maintenance mode or move the VMs to another ESXi host then perform the installation by running: esxcli -s ESXiHostAddress software vib install -d /PathtoExtractedZipFileContents/index.xml:
Once the install is complete you will need to reboot the host.
You can check out the plugin by running:
You can also install PowerPath using Update Manager, or include it as part of an custom image for use with AutoDeploy. You can read more about configuring plugins in this post.