SPC-2 set or not?

For those like me who see different types of Arrays daily it is hard to keep up with all the specific settings that need to be configured. Especially when we are talking about enterprise level storage there are several dependencies and requirements.

One of the settings that is often overlooked on EMC DMX storage is the SPC-2 bit. I already noticed a while back what kind of impact it can have on your environment and witness it again today.

During the creation of a VMFS volume we received an error which basically stated that it was impossible to create the volume. The error message was a bit misleading but I noticed in the detailed section that the LUN was identified as “sym.<identifier string>”. This normally should state “naa.<identifier string>” and that triggered me to check the documentation of the array.

When an additional front-end port is zoned to an ESX host, to provide further connectivity to devices, the SPC-2 bit must be set; otherwise, the Symmetrix devices will not be properly identified. Instead of identifying each device with their proper Network Authority Address (NAA), the devices will show up with a SYM identification number. Any device provisioned to the non-SPC-2 compliant port will be identified as a new device by the ESX host system.

Again, it is hard to keep up with every single vendor out there. Let alone all the different type of arrays and all the different settings. Luckily EMC acknowledged that and created the “EMC Storage Viewer for vSphere”. The EMC Storage Viewer actually shows you if the “SPC-2” (amongst other settings) is enabled or not… This will save you a lot of pain and discussion with the Storage Team when push comes to shove. Definitely one of the reasons I would recommend to use this plugin.

For those facing spc-2 bit issues make sure to read “H4116-enabling-spc2-compl-emc-symmetrix-dmx-vmware-envnmt-wp.pdf”. (Available via EMC’s powerlink.)