How to setup Solutions Enabler with SMI-S for Windows

 

From time to time I’ve needed to get Solutions Enabler setup for various different reasons, on various different lab environments, as well as helping customers get this setup for things like VASA and ProSphere.  I figured I might as well document it and publish it so that in another 3 months, when I need to do it again, I can remember

Before I get started, you’ll need to be aware of a couple of items regarding Solutions Enabler, and hopefully this will avoid confusion.  First, some storage management tools use the base Solutions Enabler functionality to discover and manage EMC arrays, while other tools use the SMI-S Provider component of Solutions Enabler to manage EMC arrays.  ProSphere and Storage Configuration Advisor are examples of tools that use the SMI-S Provider component of Solutions Enabler to discover VMAX and VNX arrays.  Watch4net and ControlCenter are examples of tools that use base Solutions Enabler functionality to discover VMAX arrays (and NaviCLI to discovery VNX arrays).

Second, keep in mind the following points regarding Solutions Enabler and the SMI-S Provider:

• Solutions Enabler and the EMC SMI-S Provider are provided by EMC as separtely installable products.
• The EMC SMI-S Provider is a component of Solutions Enabler and requires underlying Solutions Enabler code to function correctly.
  • Installation of the base Solutions Enabler software does NOT include the SMI-S Provider component
  • Installation of the SMI-S Provider includes only the necessary underlying Solutions Enabler code, not a full installation of Solutions Enabler.
• It is technically possible to install the SMI-S Provider on a machine where Solutions Enabler is already installed, but be aware that the SMI-S Provider installation will uninstall any existing SE software and reinstall only the subset of SE that comes with the Provider.
• Both products always require gatekeepers to discover VMAX arrays (when installing in a VM, RDMs are required)

To sum up all these points into a simple recommendation: Install the SMI-S Provider on a machine separate from Solutions Enabler.  This will eliminate any issues associated with installing the Provider on a SE machine. 

 

In this blog, I will document and publish how to install and configure the SMI-S Provider.

 

Here is a quick and dirty “How to Setup Solutions Enabler 7.5 with SMI-S” for EMC Arrays.  Specifically we will be adding a VNX array.

Solutions Enabler with SMI-S can be setup on either Windows or Linux and for this blog post I’m going to deploy this on a Windows Virtual Machine.  So the first thing you will need to do is create a new Windows 2008 R2 VM.  If you are unsure on how to do this – I have a couple of quick guides that might help you.

• vSphere 5 How to setup a Windows 2008 OS Template
• vSphere 5 How to deploy Windows 2008 from an OS Template

By the way, if you are looking for the EMC documented notes for this install, look for the EMC SMI-S Provider version 4.4 release notes – P/N 300-013-992 – I know, not very intuitive that install guides would be published inside release notes !

 

1. Once you have a Windows 2008 VM ready to go, download the following file from Support.EMC.Com: se7500-Windows-x64-SMI.exe

 

2. Once that is done, you should have the following ICON in your downloads folder:

3. So, lets get this installed and connected to the VNX.  Double click the ICON and the first thing you will see is that there is a dependency on VC8SP1 – the great news is it is packaged into this so just click Install

4. The install will continue.

 

5. Once the dependency is met, you will get prompted for the Solutions Enabler installation.  Click Next.

6. Pick the location you want it to go to.

7. When you get to the provider list – just keep the default of Array Provider and click next.. 

8. The next screen takes you through the Services List for the various daemons. Keep the defaults and just check the box for EMC SE SYMAPI Server Daemon.  I’m not 100% sure you need this or not, but I’ve been told by others to select it.  Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any documentation on PowerLink on the dependency of this daemon for ProSphere but it makes sense we would want the daemon installed.  The SYMAPI Daemon essentially listens for API request from other hosts (like SRM for example).  Select it, and click next. 

9. Last but not least, click the “Install” button !

10. And watch it go !:

11.  Once it’s completed the install, you will get the following dialog box:

 

Now that we have Solutions Enabler with SMI-S installed, we need to make some tweaks to the Windows Firewall Rules.  In my case, since this is a lab environment, I just turn the firewall off, its funny how that fixes a lot of issues  

But if you are a little more security conscious then me you simply need to open up the ports to allow SMI-S and SLP traffic.  Specifically ports like TCP-5988 –5989 and port 427 (UDP).  But when in doubt, especially if you are troubleshooting this install, just shut off the firewall and once everything is working you can start playing with the firewall rules again. 

Now, we need to setup Solutions Enabler to communicate with our VNX.  This requires a little Command Line fun !  Make sure you run-as-admin the CMD.EXE command.

 

12. First thing we need to do is go to the c:Program FilesEMCECIMECOMBIN directory as shown below.

13. Then you want to run testSMIProvider.EXE

14. This runs through a couple of setup commands.  Just hit enter to take all the defaults, including the username/password etc.  By the way – make sure you remember the username/password for future use.  For instance, when you setup ProSphere it will need these credentials to communicate with the SMI-S provider on this machine.  So it might make sense to leave it as default – but that’s just me ! (admin/#1Password)

 

15. At this point you should see the below screen shot.  Now we need to have it connect to the VNX.

16. lets do a quick test – type DV for Display Version Info – you will see that everything appears to be working.  These results will also list out any arrays to which the SMI-S Provider is already connect, so this is a great command to verigy that the VNX isn’t connected yet.

17. To setup the VNX – simply type in addsys and select Y when it asks you if you want to add a system.  Next follow the prompts.  Here is the breakdown that will match the screen shot below

• Question1: asks what sort of array we are going to connect.  In this case, it’s 1=Clar
• Question2: asks for the IP or hostname of the array – just use SP-A’s IP address
• Question3: asks you again for an IP or hostname of the array – just use SP-B’s IP address
• Question4: just leave it blank to quit
• Question5 & 6: asks you to clarify what you used in questions 2 and 3, in this case we used the IP address so select #2 for each address type
• Question7: asks you for the username of the array – this is for the block side of the array so don’t use nasadmin – in this case the default is sysadmin
• Question7: asks you for the password for that account – we keep the defaults in our lab so just type in sysadmin for the password (if it’s different for you, just enter in the password you created for it)

That’s it for all the questions, if you get a crazy error message just read through it and my guess would be your username/password was not correct.  At least that’s the one I run into the most.

18.Back at the command prompt – run DV (Display Version Info) again to verify that the VNX has indeed been added to it.  You will see it towards the bottom. 

 

Well that’s it – easy peasy right !  So to summarize the steps above.  We did the following:

1. Deployed a new Windows 2008 R2 VM
2. Downloaded the se7500-Windows-x64-SMI.exe from support.emc.com
3. We went through the process of installing it on the Windows 2008 VM
4. We then dropped down to the command line and setup the box to communicate with the VNX.

If you have more then 1 VNX then just run through step 17 again.   Other then that, we are now done with this setup.

@vTexan