[OpenIndiana-discuss] 3x LSI 9211-8i controllers + direct attach backplane -- appear as on controller

[Bill Sommerfeld]

On 11/16/11 12:30, Jason J. W. Williams wrote:
> I just had a new server released to me using a SuperMicro SC216A (direct
> attach backplane) chassis and 3x 9211-8i controllers loaded with 11.0 IT
> firmware. I've confirmed the firmware is correct, what is strange is that
> all of the drives are showing as being on one controller (c2) though the
> LSI BIOS clearly shows the drives scattered across the three controllers:
> 
> https://gist.github.com/c9b15104cbaebc640d6d
> 
> Any insight on what's going would be very appreciated.

This looks like multipathing (mpxio); if it's enabled, it attaches all disks
to a virtual controller, with target names derived from the WWN of the targets.

under the covers, these get mapped to whichever physical controller(s) have a
path to the disk.  I've only used this with fiberchannel but I believe it's
also available with SAS.

if you don't actually have multiple paths to each disk you can generally turn
it off and have small-integer target numbers in the disk names.

						- Bill