mac mini server + SANLink adapter Thunderbolt to Fibre ..long Delay to connect to fiber xsan

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mac mini server + SANLink adapter Thunderbolt to Fibre ..long Delay to connect to fiber xsan

We replace the old Xseve with new Mac mini server (10.8.2 ) with PROMISE SANLink adapter " Thunderbolt to Fibre Channel)

we have 2 mac pro machines ( 10.7.5) with Apple fiber channel card in both machine (firmware 1.3 ) and 2 active storage (12x2TB ) , Qlogic 1400 fibe switch 8 Ports

our xsan system was runing with xserve as MDC from long time

Now we replace the xserve with new mac mini + SANLink adapter and recreate the new XSAN Volume again as clean installation and mounted it on the server and on both machines

But unfortunatelywe found many problems

1- Mac mini server with PROMISE SANLink adapter takes about 20 Min to detect the fiber connection with LUNs we got LUNs not found message on xsan admin for about 20 Min , and then he found it and mounted on mac mini desktop

2-All mac pro ( 10.7.5 ) take about 20 min to detect the fiber channel ( get red and not connected for about 20 min after booting ) this happen only when I update the OSX from 10.6.8 to 10.7.5 ..!!!!

3-All client can not mount the xsan volume and computers did not authenticate .

4- I deleted the computers and can't add it again to computers list ..always can't authenticate

So what can it to to solve this problem ??? , Is ther any firmware update for Apple fiber channel card for 10.7.5 , why

PROMISE SANLink adapter " Thunderbolt to Fibre Channel) takes 20 min to detect the fiber ???

Posted on Feb 21, 2014 7:56 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 24, 2014 2:01 PM in response to maged248

Some of this is heavy opinion and some is experience. First, 10.7 was a terrible OS for Xsan support. Some of the issues you may be experiencing may be due to 10.7. I for one, avoided it like the plague.

Next, the issues you are describing sound like they could be DNS related or possibly related to how you defined your zones and your ports (target vs initiator). The place to look is your system log on these units. You should be seeing SCSI initialization errors from the FC cards. You may have loop arbitration issues or something else related to the way the FC ports are configured.

Any reason why 10.7.x was selected?

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Answer 2

Feb 25, 2014 2:07 PM in response to maged248

If "sudo cvlabel -c" hangs when listing LUNs, xsanmgrd (or servermgrd in 10.7.5) will also hang when it checks LUNs on behalf of Xsan Admin. This might cause Xsan Admin to think that authentication has failed.

I'd check that all ports in the fibre channel switch are configured per http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1084. Then do a full shutdown/startup of the Xsan per http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4027.

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