Spectra T200 - Preparing to Configure Partitions

Chapter 6 — Configuring and Managing Partitions Preparing to Configure Partitions
December 2019 User Guide—Spectra T200, T380, and T680 Libraries
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Robotic control
path
Decide on the exporting controller (tape drive, RIM, or F-QIP) for the library’s
robotics.
Important: If the exporting controller is used by other partitions, wait for
any moves in progress to complete, and make the controller offline to all
host applications before creating a new partition.
Notes:
 If you plan to select both ports on the exporting controller, make sure that the
software used with the partition supports using multiple control paths and
that the ports are cabled correctly. Selecting both ports provides redundancy,
but requires software that supports two control paths to the robotics.
 You can select multiple similar exporting controllers (RIMs and F-QIPs, or
drives), and export the same changer interface over them to provide
redundancy, as long as your storage management software supports this.
These multiple paths cannot be used at the same time.
 Beginning with 12.7.05 the maximum number of exporters supported by the
library is six.
 Six drive exporters can be used for six different partitions, or multiple
exporters can be configured in the same partition, reducing the maximum
number of partitions.
 A single RIM can export up to eight partitions, but still only count as one
exporter; a single RIM2 can export up to 8 partitions for a T200 or 12
partitions for a T380 or T680, but still only count as one exporter.
Controller port
addressing
If the robotic control path is provided by a RIM or F-QIP, decide what port
addressing (soft addressing or Loop ID) and Fibre mode (Loop, Fabric, or Auto-
negotiate) each port on the controller uses. If you select soft addressing, each
Fibre Channel port is assigned a unique address when it connects to the Fibre
Channel arbitrated loop, fabric, or SAN. If you do not use soft addressing, each
port uses the fixed Loop ID you set.
Note: If the library uses F-QIPs to provide the robotic control path and Fibre
Channel connectivity for SCSI drives, you must separately configure the port
addressing for the F-QIP used to provide the robotic control path and for any
additional F-QIPs used to provide connectivity for the drives (see Configure the
Port Addressing for the Controllers on page 205).
Direct-attached
Fibre Channel drive
addressing
For each Fibre Channel drive, decide whether to use soft addressing or an
assigned Loop ID. If you select soft addressing, each Fibre Channel port is
identified by an address assigned to the drive when it connects to the Fibre
Channel arbitrated loop, fabric, or SAN. If you do not use soft addressing, each
port uses the fixed Loop ID you set.
Drive visibility If a partition includes SCSI drives with connectivity provided by an F-QIP,
decide whether the drives connected to each F-QIP are visible (accessible) to
external hosts through one or both of the F-QIP Fibre Channel ports.
Note: If you select both, make sure that the storage management software can
handle server contention over drive use resulting from redundant paths to a
drive.
Component Description