Dell MD3220, MD3200 owner manual Configuration About Your Host, Configuring Host Access

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Configuration: About Your Host

Configuring Host Access

Modular Disk Storage Manager (MDSM) software is comprised of multiple modules. One of these modules is the Host Context Agent. The host context agent is installed as part of the MDSM installation and runs continuously in the background.

If the host context agent is running on a host, that host and the host ports connected from it to the storage array are automatically detected by MDSM and appear on the Mappings tab in the Array Management Window (AMW). For more information on the Mappings tab, see "Using the Mappings Tab" on page 84.

If the hosts are not detected automatically, you can use the Define Host Wizard to define the hosts that access the virtual disks in the storage array. Defining a host is one of the steps required to let the storage array know which hosts are attached to it and to allow access to the virtual disks. For more information on defining the hosts, see "Defining a Host" on page 84.

To enable the host to write to the storage array, you must map the host to the virtual disk. This mapping grants a host or a host group access to a particular virtual disk or to a number of virtual disks in a storage array. You can define the mappings on the Mappings tab in the Array Management Window (AMW).

On the Summary tab in the AMW, the Hosts & Mappings area indicates how many hosts are configured to access the storage array. You can click Configured Hosts in the Hosts & Mappings area to see the names of the hosts

A collection of elements, such as default host groups, hosts, and host ports, appear as nodes in the Topology pane of the Mappings tab in the AMW.

The host topology is reconfigurable. You can perform the following tasks:

•Create a host and assign an alias or user label.

•Add or associate a new host port identifier to a particular host.

Configuration: About Your Host

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