Feature Specification

Microcode Level: Enginuity 5773 Feature/Functionality: Flexible Device Geometry Involved Components: Enginuity, Solutions Enabler
Introduction
Enginuity version 5773 is the latest Enginuity release supporting the Symmetrix Direct Matrix Architecture DMX-3 and DMX-4 storage arrays. Enginuity version 5773 features critical software enhancements such as Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning, cascaded SRDF for three-site replication, mainframe enhancements, and easeof-use enhancements. This feature specification describes flexible device geometry, which provides interoperability when migrating data between DMX-3 or DMX-4 arrays and older systems. This allows Symmetrix devices to be presented with an external device geometry different from its native geometry. label if auto configure is run from the Format>type menu, followed by label. When a device is migrated to a DMX-3 using a product that produces a track-by-track copy of the source device on the target device (for example, when using SRDF, Recoverpoint, or Open Migrator), the entire device is migrated, including the VTOC label. When this occurs between devices with heterogeneous disk geometries, there is a difference between the disk geometry written in the label on the target (which was copied from the source) and the disk geometry that is presented to the target host by the DMX-3. If the device is relabeled, data loss occurs. This is because Solaris reserves two cylinders from every device for use by the operating system. DMX-3 cylinders are twice as large as cylinders from previous generation Symmetrix disk arrays, meaning that the operating system overwrites the last 1920 sectors of the user data area with an area reserved for operating system use. Note that regardless of a difference in geometry between the label and the actual disk, no issue is seen if the disk is not relabeled by the user. This potential issue has been resolved with the introduction of Flexible Device Geometry.

Product Description
The disk geometry presented to the host by the disk array changed at the introduction of the Symmetrix DMX-3. The number of sectors per track was doubled to 128, leading to a doubling of the cylinder size. The differences in geometry between Symmetrix array products are as follows: 4.8/5/DMX/DMX-2 512 bytes/sector 64 sectors/track 15 tracks/cylinder 960 sectors/cylinder X cylinders X-2 accessible cylinders DMX-3 and DMX-4 512 bytes/sector 128 sectors/track 15 tracks/cylinder 1920 sectors/cylinder X cylinders X-2 accessible cylinders

Feature Description
To alleviate any potential for corruption, two features have been added to Symmetrix Enginuity. A bin file setting has been included that allows the DMX-3 and DMX-4 to present an external device geometry for all Symmetrix devices that is different from its internal, native device geometry. Functionality has also been added to Enginuity to allow alternate disk geometry to be presented on a device-by-device basis. When changing the disk geometry for the entire array, the bin file flag must be set prior to migrating Solaris data to the array. This setting causes the Symmetrix array to present all DMX-3 devices with the geometry presented by previous generation Symmetrix arrays. This bin file change must be made offline. No downtime is required when setting flexible device geometry on individual devices, but the alternate geometry must be set on the target device prior to migrating Solaris data.

In the Sun Solaris operating system, disk geometry, disk size, manufacturer ID, and the partition table are stored in the label in sector 0 of the disk. The label is written to the disk using the Format utility, which makes a device usable to the OS. When a Solaris device is opened for I/O activity, the label is written to host cache and the SCSI driver uses the partition information to translate relative partition addresses to device absolute logical block addresses. The difference between disk geometries does not cause issues in most scenarios. However, there are three pieces of information contained in the disk label that, if modified, can cause a new label to be written by the operating system. If disk geometry, manufacturer ID, or the size of the disk device changes, the Format utility writes a new March 2008

Flexible Device Geometry

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Syntax
Flexible device geometry on individual devices is set using the symconfigure Symmetrix Command Line Interface (CLI) command. The symconfigure command is typically executed by specifying a command file that contains a series of actions for symconfigure to perform. The following syntax shows functionality that has been added to symconfigure to allow the device geometry to be modified: set dev SymDevName[:SymDevName] geometry [=Symm-6 | =Symm-7 | = NO GEOMETRY [blocks_per_track=x tracks_per_cyl=y cyls=z]]; Symm-6 refers to the disk geometry presented by Symmetrix arrays prior to the DMX-3; Symm-7 refers to DMX-3 and later Symmetrix arrays. If NO GEOMETRY is chosen, any disk geometry set by this feature is cleared and the device is presented with its native DMX-3 or DMX-4 geometry.

presented to the operating system. Enabling this feature on a Symmetrix array with existing Solaris host data results in data loss. When alternate geometry is set on a device-by-device basis, the geometry must also be set before the devices are made available to the host. Device geometry cannot be changed for the following Symmetrix device types: Individual meta members Vault device SFS device Save device Virtual Provisioning DATA device DRV Unmapped device
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Requirements and Dependencies

Flexible Device Geometry requires Enginuity version 5773 and Solutions Enabler version 6.5.

Packaging
This feature is included free of charge in Enginuity version 5773.

Limitations and Restrictions

The Solaris Format utility depends on three attributes being intact when performing a reformat operation: Geometry Capacity Manufacturer ID. Because only the geometry can be changed by this feature, the Format utility writes a default partition table to the disk. In order to preserve a custom partition table, the user must record the partition table prior to running the Format utility. They must then run the Format utility, run auto configure, write a new label, and rewrite the partition table using the fmthard utility. See the Technical Note Flexible Device Geometry in a Sun Solaris Environment, available on Powerlink, for details on this procedure. Implementation of the bin file setting to change the disk geometry for the entire array requires an offline bin change and is valid for new Symmetrix array installations only. This change should be implemented before devices are

March 2008

Flexible Device Geometry

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