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Automatic path switching, Automatic path switching -14, Automatic failovers -14 – HP XP P9500 Storage User Manual

Page 36: For details on performing failovers, see, Performing failovers and failbacks, For details on performing failbacks, see, Performing failovers and

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Performing Failovers and Failbacks Using Path Switching

When the system contains multiple paths to an LU and an error occurs on the

path that is currently being used, HDLM can switch to another functional

path, so that the system can continue operating. This is called a failover.

If a path in which an error has occurred recovers from the error, HDLM can

then switch back to that path. This is called a failback.

Two types of failovers and failbacks are available:

Automatic failovers and failbacks

Manual failovers and failbacks

Failovers and failbacks switch which path is being used and also change the

statuses of the paths. A path status is either online or offline. An online status

means that the path can receive I/Os. On the other hand, an offline status

means that the path cannot receive I/Os. A path will go into the offline status

for the following reasons:

An error occurred on the path.

A user executed the HDLM command's offline operation.
For details on the offline operation, see

offline (Places Paths Offline) on

page 6-6

.

For details on path statuses and the transitions of those statuses, see

Path

status transition on page 2-20

.

Automatic path switching

The following describes the automatic failover and failback functions, which

automatically switch a path.

Automatic failovers

If you detect an error on the path that is currently being used, you can

continue to use the system by having the status of that path automatically

changed to offline, and then automatically have the system switch over to

another online path. This functionality is called automatic failover. Automatic

failovers can be used for the following levels of errors:

Critical

A fatal error that might stop the system.

Error

A high-risk error, which can be avoided by performing a failover or some

other countermeasure.

For details on error levels, see

Filtering of error information on page 2-33

.

When the Thunder 9500V series, or Hitachi AMS/WMS series is being used,

HDLM will select the path to be used next from among the various paths that

access the same LU, starting with owner paths, and then non-owner paths.

For example, in

Figure 2-8 Path switching on page 2-15

, the owner

2-14

HDLM Functions

Hitachi Dynamic Link Manager User Guide for AIX

®

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