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Quick start checklist for planning the Host Utilities installation

Installing the Host Utilities and setting up your system involves numerous tasks that are performed on both the storage system and the host. The following checklist provides a high-level overview of these tasks.

If you are an experienced Linux user, this checklist can serve as a quick start guide to installing and setting up the Host Utilities.

Regardless of your experience level, planning how you will install and configure the Host Utilities is a good practice.

The detailed steps for each of the tasks presented in the checklist are provided later in this guide.

Note: Occasionally there are known problems that can affect your system setup. Review the Host Utilities Release Notes before you install the Host Utilities. The Release Notes are updated whenever an issue is found, and may contain information about the Host Utilities that was discovered after this guide was produced.

Task 1: Make sure the prerequisites for installing and setting up the Host Utilities have been met

  1. Verify that your system setup is correct. Check the Interoperability Matrix for the most current information about system requirements. This includes:
    • Host operating system version and patches.
    • HBAs and drivers, or software initiators, model, and version.
      Note: This guide contains information on QLogic and Emulex HBAs. Other HBAs are also supported. Check the Interoperability Matrix for complete information on supported HBAs.
    • (Veritas) Veritas Storage Foundation

      Set up the Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM), and then set up the Array Support Library (ASL) and Array Policy Module (APM), if this software was not installed with your version of Veritas Storage Foundation.

    • Volume management and multipathing.
    • Optional setup based on your operating system
      • (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 or later) This version of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system supports space reclamation, but you must perform some setup steps to use space reclamation successfully.
      • (Oracle VM)If you are using Oracle VM, you need to set the O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD to 65.
  2. Verify that your storage system is:
    • Running a supported version of Data ONTAP.
      Note: If you are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 or later, you should run Data ONTAP 8.0.1 or higher on the storage systems. That way you can use the Block Limits VPD page (0xb0) information. Using the Block Limits VPD page helps maintain block alignment, which results in enhanced I/O performance on the NetApp LUN.
    • Running the correct, licensed protocol for your environment.
    • Set up to work with the host and the initiator HBAs or software initiators, as needed by your protocol.
    • Set up to work with ALUA, if it is supported with your version of Data ONTAP and your protocol.

      For clustered Data ONTAP, ALUA works with the FC, FCoE and iSCSI protocols and must be enabled. For Data ONTAP operating in 7-Mode, ALUA works with the FC and FCoE protocols.

    • Set up with working volumes.
  3. (FC) If you are using a switch, verify that it is:
    • Set up correctly.
    • Zoned.
    • Cabled correctly.
    Note: For information about supported topologies and cabling, see the Data ONTAP SAN Configuration Guide for 7-Mode for your version of Data ONTAP.
  4. Confirm that the host and the storage system can communicate.

Task 2: Install the Host Utilities

  1. If you are upgrading the Host Utilities from an earlier version, remove the currently installed version of the Host Utilities.

    If you are uninstalling the current version of the Host Utilities or Linux Host Utilities 5.3, you can use the rpm -e command. Prior to the Linux Host Utilities 5.3, the software for the Host Utilities was not provided in .rpm format. If you have one of those versions of the Host Utilities installed, you must use the /uninstall command.

  2. Download a copy of the .rpm file containing the Host Utilities software for your host architecture from the NetApp Support Site.
    Note: The Linux Host Utilities provide both a 32-bit software installation package and a 64-bit software installation package.
  3. Install the Host Utilities software using the rpm -ivh package_name command.
    Note: Starting with Linux Host Utilities 5.3, if you are upgrading the Host utilities from Linux Host Utilities, you can use the rpm -Uvh package_name command.

(iSCSI) Task 3: Configure the iSCSI protocol

  1. Record the host’s iSCSI node name.
  2. Start the iSCSI service.
  3. Set up target discovery.
  4. (Optional) Set up CHAP.
  5. Configure the iSCSI service to start automatically.
  6. Configure automatic node login.

Task 4: Set up multipathing

  1. Supply the correct parameters based on your multipathing system.

    If you are using the native DM-Multipath, you must configure the multipath.conf file.

    If you are using Veritas Dynamic Multipathing (VxDMP) you must set the appropriate parameters.

  2. Verify the configuration.
  3. (Native multipathing only) Configure DM-Multipath to start automatically during system boots.

Task 5: Set up access between the host and the LUNs on the storage system

  1. Discover new LUNs.
  2. View the LUNs.
  3. Display multipathing information about the LUNs.
  4. Enable device persistence for the LUNs.
  5. Remove LUNs.