Solaris Veritas Cluster Migrating from MPxIO to PowerPath

Installing PowerPath in a cluster requires downtime (to install or upgrade).  The recommended way is to install PowerPath one node at a time.  You can have MPxIO and PowerPath co-exist during this process.  There are details in the documentation regarding the co-existence.

The following information comes from the PowerPath for Solaris Ver 5.5 Installation and Admin Guide that can be found on Powerlink.

Page 50: Integrating/upgrading PowerPath into an existing VCS cluster

To integrate PowerPath into an existing VCS cluster:

1. 1. On each node in the cluster, stop cluster services on the node

using the hastop -local -evacuate command.

1. 2. On each node in the cluster, install or upgrade PowerPath on the
2. node.

IMPORTANT

On x86 hosts connected to a Symmetrix storage system, ensure

that the hosts in the cluster have unique host IDs (type hostid

from each node in the cluster). Failure to use unique host IDs

breaks the cluster disk-fencing scheme. Contact Oracle Solaris

customer support for instructions on changing host IDs.

1. 3. Run the hastart command to start cluster services on the node

where you changed the main.cf file, and wait for the node to be

fully reintegrated into the cluster.

1. 4. Run hastart to start the remaining nodes in the cluster, waiting for

each node to be fully integrated into the cluster before running

hastart on the next node.

Page 40: Coexistence with third-party multipathing software

PowerPath can coexist with the following third-party path management software:

• Hitachi Dynamic Link Manager (HDLM)
• IBM Subsystem Device Driver (SDD)
• HP StorageWorks Secure Path
• HP StorageWorks Auto Path XP Virtual Array
• Sun Solaris MPxIO
• Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) Dynamic MultiPathing (DMP)

However, PowerPath cannot co-manage devices with some third-party path management

1. software.