DS6000 supports FC attachment to Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 servers. For details regarding operating system versions and HBA types see the DS6000 Interoperability Matrix, available at:
http://www.ibm.com/servers/storage/disk/ds6000/interop.html
The support includes cluster service and acting as a boot device. Booting is supported currently with host adapters QLA23xx (32 bit or 64 bit) and LP9xxx (32 bit only). For a detailed discussion about SAN booting (advantages, disadvantages, potential difficulties, and troubleshooting) we highly recommend the Microsoft document Boot from SAN in Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server, available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/storage/technologies/bootfromsan/bootfromsanin
windows.mspx
HBA and operating system settings
Depending on the host bus adapter type, several HBA and driver settings may be required. Refer to the DS6000 Host Systems Attachment Guide,
To ensure optimum availability and recoverability when you attach a storage unit to a Windows 2000/2003 host system, we recommend setting the TimeOutValue value associated with the host adapters to 60 seconds. The operating system uses the TimeOutValue parameter to bind its recovery actions and responses to the disk subsystem. The value is stored in the Windows registry at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Disk\TimeOutValue
The value has the data type
SDD for Windows
An important task with a Windows host is the installation of the SDD multipath driver. Ensure that SDD is installed before adding additional paths to a device. Otherwise, the operating system could lose the ability to access existing data on that device. For details, refer to the IBM TotalStorage Multipath Subsystem Device Driver User’s Guide,
SDD does not support I/O load balancing with Windows 2000 server clustering (MSCS). For Windows 2003, SDD 1.6.0.0 (or later) is required for load balancing with MSCS.
When booting from the FC storage systems, special restrictions apply:
–With Windows 2000, you should not use the same HBA as both the FC boot device and the clustering adapter. The reason for this is the usage of SCSI bus resets by MSCS to break up disk reservations during quorum arbitration. Because a bus reset cancels all pending I/O operations to all FC disks visible to the host via that port, an
–With Windows 2003, MSCS uses target resets. See the Microsoft technical article Microsoft Windows Clustering: Storage Area Networks at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/san.mspx
Windows Server 2003 will allow for boot disk and the cluster server disks hosted on the
same bus. However, you would need to use Storport miniport HBA drivers for this functionality to work. This is not a supported configuration in combination with drivers of other types (for example, SCSI port miniport or Full port drivers).
322DS6000 Series: Concepts and Architecture