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15 EMC PowerPath Powermt Command

Examples Display, Check, Remove, Config,
Restore
by Ramesh Natarajan on October 19, 2010
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If your server has two HBA cards connected to EMC SAN storage device, you can implement
load-balancing, and fail-over on the HBA cards using the EMC PowerPath software.
Powermt management utility helps you manage I/O paths from the server to the EMC storage
device. In this article, let us discuss how to use powermt command with practical examples.

1. powermt display Display High Level HBA I/O Paths

powermt display command (without any arguments), displays the available HBAs and their
current status. The following examples, shows that there are 2 HBAs connected to the server,
both the HBAs are in active condition with 2 I/O paths each. qla2xxx indicates that it is using
the Q-Logic HBA card.
This also indicates that the connected EMC device is CLARiiON, as it displays a value for
CLARiiON logical device count as 1.
# powermt display
Symmetrix logical device count=0
CLARiiON logical device count=1

Hitachi logical device count=0

Invista logical device count=0
HP xp logical device count=0
Ess logical device count=0
HP HSx logical device count=0
==============================================================================
----- Host Bus Adapters --------- ------ I/O Paths ----- ------ Stats -----### HW Path
Summary
Total
Dead IO/Sec Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx
optimal
2
0
0
0
2 qla2xxx
optimal
2
0
0
0

2. powermt display dev=all Display All Attached LUNs

This is the most frequently used powermt command, which will display all the attached logical
devices to the server.
# powermt display dev=all
Pseudo name=emcpowera
CLARiiON ID=AAA00000000000 [dev-server]
Logical device ID=1111111111111111111 [LUN 1]
state=alive; policy=CLAROpt; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B
Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- Stor -- I/O Path - -- Stats --### HW Path
I/O Paths
Interf.
Mode
State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx
sdd
SP A4
active alive
0
0
1 qla2xxx
sde
SP B4
active alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdf
SP A5
active alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdg
SP B5
active alive
0
0
Pseudo name=emcpowerb
CLARiiON ID=AAA00000000000 [dev-server]
Logical device ID=2111111111111111111 [LUN 2]
state=alive; policy=CLAROpt; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP A, current=SP A
Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- Stor -- I/O Path - -- Stats --### HW Path
I/O Paths
Interf.
Mode
State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx
sdh
SP A4
active alive
0
0
1 qla2xxx
sdi
SP B4
active alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdj
SP A5
active alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdk
SP B5
active alive
0
0

The above indicates that there are two LUNs attached to the dev-server with 4 I/O paths from the
server to the SAN storage device.
The above command output indicates the following:

Pseudo name=emcpowera The device name that can be used by the server. For
example, /dev/emcpowera.

CLARiiON ID=AAA00000000000 [dev-server] EMC CLARiiON CX3 serial number

and the server name.

Logical device ID=11111111 [LUN 1] LUN number. For example, LUN 1.

state=alive; policy=CLAROpt; This displays that this particular LUN is valid and
using the CLAROpt policy.

Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B This indicates that the default (and current)
owner for this LUN is storage processor SP B.

3. powermt display dev=emcpowera Display specific LUN

When there are multiple LUNs connected to a server, you might want to view information about
a specific LUN by providing the logical name of the LUN as shown below.
# powermt display dev=emcpowera
Pseudo name=emcpowera
CLARiiON ID=AAA00000000000 [dev-server]
Logical device ID=1111111111111111111 [LUN 1]
state=alive; policy=CLAROpt; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B
Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- Stor -- I/O Path - -- Stats --### HW Path
I/O Paths
Interf.
Mode
State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx
sdd
SP A4
active alive
0
0
1 qla2xxx
sde
SP B4
active alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdf
SP A5
active alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdg
SP B5
active alive
0
0

If the device is not available, youll get a Bad dev value as shown below.
# powermt display dev=emcpowerc
Bad dev value emcpowerc, or not under Powerpath control.

4. powermt check_registration Display PowerPath Registration Key / Status

If youve lost the PowerPath registration key that youve used during the EMC PowerPath
installation, you can retrieve it using the following command.
# powermt check_registration
Key AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD-EEEE-FFFF
Product: PowerPath
Capabilities: All

5. powermt display options Display EMC PowerPath Options

Displays the high level EMC SAN array options as shown below.

# powermt display options

Default storage system class: all
Show CLARiiON LUN names:
true
Path Latency Monitor: Off
Path Latency Threshold: 0 Sec.
Storage
System Class Attributes
------------ ---------Symmetrix
periodic autorestore
status = managed
CLARiiON
periodic autorestore
status = managed
Hitachi
periodic autorestore
status = managed
Invista
periodic autorestore
status = managed
HP xp
periodic autorestore
status = managed
Ess
periodic autorestore
status = managed
HP HSx
periodic autorestore
status = managed

= on
= on
= on
= on
= on
= on
= on

6. powermt display hba_mode Display PowerPath HBA Mode

This is similar to #1, but displays whether hba is enabled or not, as shown in the last column of
the output.
# powermt display hba_mode
Symmetrix logical device count=0
CLARiiON logical device count=1
Hitachi logical device count=0
Invista logical device count=0
HP xp logical device count=0
Ess logical device count=0
HP HSx logical device count=0
==============================================================================
----- Host Bus Adapters --------- ------ I/O Paths ----- Stats
### HW Path
Summary
Total
Dead Q-IOs Mode
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx
optimal
2
0
0 Enabled
2 qla2xxx
optimal
2
0
0 Enabled

7. powermt display path Display available I/O Paths.

This displays all available path for your SAN device.
# powermt display paths
Symmetrix logical device count=0
==============================================================================
----- Host Bus Adapters --------- ------ Storage System ----- I/O Paths ### HW Path
ID
Interface
Total
Dead
==============================================================================
CLARiiON logical device count=1

==============================================================================
----- Host Bus Adapters --------- ------ Storage System ----- I/O Paths ### HW Path
ID
Interface
Total
Dead
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx
AAA00000000000
SP A4
1
0
1 qla2xxx
AAA00000000000
SP B4
1
0
2 qla2xxx
AAA00000000000
SP A5
1
0
2 qla2xxx
AAA00000000000
SP B5
1
0
Hitachi logical device count=0
==============================================================================
----- Host Bus Adapters --------- ------ Storage System ----- I/O Paths ### HW Path
ID
Interface
Total
Dead
==============================================================================
Invista logical device count=0
==============================================================================
----- Host Bus Adapters --------- ------ Storage System ----- I/O Paths ### HW Path
ID
Interface
Total
Dead
==============================================================================
HP xp logical device count=0
==============================================================================
----- Host Bus Adapters --------- ------ Storage System ----- I/O Paths ### HW Path
ID
Interface
Total
Dead
==============================================================================
Ess logical device count=0
==============================================================================
----- Host Bus Adapters --------- ------ Storage System ----- I/O Paths ### HW Path
ID
Interface
Total
Dead
==============================================================================
HP HSx logical device count=0
==============================================================================
----- Host Bus Adapters --------- ------ Storage System ----- I/O Paths ### HW Path
ID
Interface
Total
Dead
==============================================================================

8. powermt displays port_mode Display Port Status

Displays the status of the individual ports on the HBA. i.e Whether the port is enabled or not.
# powermt display port_mode
Storage class = Symmetrix
==============================================================================
----------- Storage System ---------------- I/O Paths ---- Stats --ID
Interface
Wt_Q
Total
Dead
Q-IOs Mode
==============================================================================
Storage class = CLARiiON
==============================================================================
----------- Storage System ---------------- I/O Paths ---- Stats --ID
Interface
Wt_Q
Total
Dead
Q-IOs Mode
==============================================================================
AAA00000000000
SP A4
256
1
0
0
Enabled
AAA00000000000
SP B4
256
1
0
0
Enabled
AAA00000000000
SP A5
256
1
0
0
Enabled

AAA00000000000
Enabled

SP B5

256

9. powermt version Display EMC PowerPath Version

How to identify the version number of EMC PowerPath software?
# powermt version
EMC powermt for PowerPath (c) Version 5.3 (build 185)

10. powermt check Check the I/O Paths

If you have made changes to the HBAs, or I/O paths, just execute powermt check, to take
appropriate action. For example, if you have manually removed an I/O path, check command
will detect a dead path and remove it from the EMC path list.
# powermt check
Warning: storage_system I/O path path_name is dead.
Do you want to remove it (y/n/a/q)?

Note: If you want powermt to automatically remove all dead paths, without any confirmation,
execute powermt check force.

11. powermt set mode hba Forcefully set the mode for a specific HBA
You can change the mode of a specific HBA to either standby or active using this command.
Following example, changes HBA #1s mode from active to standby.
# powermt set mode=standby hba=1

After the above command, you can see the mode for HBA#1 changed to standby, as shown
below.
# powermt display dev=all
Pseudo name=emcpowera
CLARiiON ID=AAA00000000000 [dev-server]
Logical device ID=1111111111111111111 [LUN 1]
state=alive; policy=CLAROpt; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B
Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- Stor -- I/O Path - -- Stats --### HW Path
I/O Paths
Interf.
Mode
State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx
sdd
SP A4
standby alive
0
0
1 qla2xxx
sde
SP B4
standby alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdf
SP A5
active alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdg
SP B5
active alive
0
0

Note: Path mode can also be unlic indicating that youve not registered the PowerPath with
proper License key.

Note: Some powermt commands (for example, powermt set port_disable), is restricted to certain
platform and storage type On AIX and Solaris, only Fibre channel is supported. On HP-UX,
only iSCSI and Fibre are supported. On Linux, Only iSCSI (HBAs) and Fibre are supported.

12. powermt remove Delete an I/O Path

Use this command to remove any specific I/O path (or) a whole device.
The following example has 4 I/O Paths.
# powermt display dev=all
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- Stor -- I/O Path - -- Stats --### HW Path
I/O Paths
Interf.
Mode
State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx
sdd
SP A4
standby alive
0
0
1 qla2xxx
sde
SP B4
standby alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdf
SP A5
active alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdg
SP B5
active alive
0
0

To remove I/O Path sdd, execute the following powermt remove command.
# powermt remove dev=sdd
# powermt display dev=all
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- Stor -- I/O Path - -- Stats --### HW Path
I/O Paths
Interf.
Mode
State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx
sde
SP B4
standby alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdf
SP A5
active alive
0
0
2 qla2xxx
sdg
SP B5
active alive
0
0

Following will remove all I/O Path for a particular device. i.e To remove /dev/emcpowera, do the
following. If the /dev/emcpowera is mounted and used by some program, following command
will not work.
# powermt remove dev=emcpowera

13. powermt config Configure PowerPath

This command checks for available EMC SAN logical devices and add those to PowerPath
configuration list. Powermt config command, sets some of the options to its default values. For
example, write throttling = off, HBA mode = active, CLARiiON policy = CLAROpt, etc.
Possible EMC SAN LUN policy values are: Adaptive, BasicFailover, CLAROpt, LeastBlocks,
LeastIos, NoRedirect, Request, RoundRobin, StreamIO, or SymmOpt.
After you execute the powermt config, if you dont like any of the default values, you should
change it accordingly.

# powermt config

14. powermt restore Make Dead I/O Path Alive

If you have dead I/O paths, and if youve done something to fix the issue, you can request
PowerPath to re-check the paths and mark it as active using powermt restore command.
When you execute powermt restore, it does an I/O path check. If a previously dead path is alive,
it will be marked as alive, and if a previously alive path is dead, it will be marked as dead.
For some reason, if you see the default owner and the current owner of a particular LUN is not
the same storage processor, then execute the following command, which will make the current
owner of the LUN same as the default owner.
# powermt restore dev=all

Instead of dev, you can also specify class in the powermt restore command. Class can be one of
the following depending on your system.

symm Symmetrix

clariion CLARiiON

invista Invista

ess IBM ESS

hitachi Hitachi Lightning TagmaStore

hpxp HP StorageWorks XP, or EVA series

hphsx HP StorageWorks EMA, or MA

all All systems

15. Powermt Save and Load Save and Restore PowerPath Configurations
powermt save Save the current Powerpath Configuration
If you are changing the PowerPath configurations for testing purpose, you can save the current
configuration using powermt save command.
Use this method to backup the current PowerPath Configurations.
# powermt save

This will save the current powermt configuration to /etc/powermt.custom file. Following is the
partial content of this file.
# cat /etc/powermt.custom
global:version:5.3.0.0.0:4.1.0
path_c:sdd:sdd:qla2xxx:0x111
path_c:sde:sde:qla2xxx:0x111
adapter: 1: 1:qla2xxx:0x111:1:0:111:0:11:0
adapter: 2: 2:qla2xxx:0x111:1:0:111:0:111:0
arrPort_c:04000000:04000000:111:111
mpext_cfg:unused:Mp:0:symm:0:0
...
...

If you want to store the current PowePath configuration to a different file, do the following.
# powermt save file=/etc/powermt.21-Aug-2010

powermt load Load a previously saved EMC PowerPath Configuration

When you are testing EMC PowerPath configuration, if you are not satisfied with the new
configuration, you can go back to the previous configuration.
For example, to restore the configuration to a specific file that you created in the above powermt
save example, do the following.
# powermt load file=/etc/powermt.21-Aug-2010

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Tagged as: /etc/powermt.custom, EMC powermt Command, emcpreg Command, emcpupgrade

Command
{ 21 comments add one }

Yogesh Upadhyay October 19, 2010, 4:05 am

Gr888Thanks a Lot .keep it Up
Plz provide some powerpath configuration for linux
Link

Henry Hall October 20, 2010, 7:19 am

Hello,
Where or how can I get a PDF version of the article?
Link

mahadevan November 20, 2010, 4:48 am

Hi, Thanks a lot.
Link

Kiran Kumar December 14, 2010, 6:24 am

Hi Ramesh,
How are you doing ? I had been following your articles some months before when i was
only working on Linux and left following your articles quite some time. But guess what

now i am into storage and when i searched for powerpath, i have been brought to your
website again for Storage ???? Wow!!!! you are a kind of man who holds all the
information about the Technology no matters what it is.
Thanks for the Post,
Kiran
Link

Ahmed Shahzad February 14, 2011, 2:28 pm

It was really helpful keep the good work up and running .
If i have a specific question abt. powermt can I email you.
thanks
Link

Alex Reyes February 17, 2011, 12:00 pm

hi, it was very helpful.
How can I get the WWNs with Clarion EMC?
Thanks a lot
Link

srinivas September 29, 2011, 1:19 am

how can i get those commands in a pdf format?
Link

ken October 18, 2011, 12:10 pm

Thanks for excellent cheat sheet.
In past I had used Veritas DMP but never used EMCpowerpath before and your page
makes me expert.!!!
Now I can update my resume !!
Link

chidanand November 20, 2011, 6:29 am

Hi Ramesh,
Thanks For giving Such A great Things and Info Thank you very much and i want more
commands which are used in storage and TSM backup commands.. please send to my
mail Id
Link

Vishal Singh March 19, 2012, 9:00 am

Thanks for giving such a beautiful article.
Link

DineshD March 25, 2012, 4:48 am

very useful and knowledgeable
Link

MY May 23, 2012, 4:19 am

Thanks for this, understand that the CLARiiON always come with the server name. I
noticed that the Symmetrix doesnt have this features. Is there anyway we can have the
servername printed on the same level of powermt command?
Link

Rikalv07 October 20, 2012, 7:16 pm

Ramesh,
We were working on a migration needing to track the errors being shown using the
powermt config command. As we resolved the cabling issue, is there a way to reset the
error counts that are shown from the powermt config output?
Link

Sanjiv Shiraguppi January 15, 2013, 2:00 am

This article explains more points for me on powerpath.
Excellent.
Thanks..
Sanjiv Shiraguppi

Link

Darshan March 8, 2013, 7:38 am

Awesome
Link

Lee June 17, 2013, 3:39 am

Does the powermt check command also clear historical errors?
Link

Aks June 26, 2013, 11:16 pm

Really appreciate your efforts in giving such a detailed explanationHats off..
Link

abdul March 2, 2014, 4:17 am

Excellent,
I have question, how to clear the historic errors. for now, we are rebooting the node. Is
there any command to clear ?
Link

Abc April 18, 2014, 12:53 am

HI!

powermt restore command will clear error counters!!.

Link

ben February 17, 2015, 4:58 pm

Awesome list. I love powerpath. I had to debug an issue with little to no help from the
customer (they owned everything outside of the server) and would not let me see
anything on the switch. I knew there was a bad cable but they made me prove it and EMC
powerpath was definitely helpful.

One command to add for AIX users. AIX we are familiar with cfgmgr. There is also an
EMC special version of the command as well
emc_cfgmgr (shell script)
Basically (with help from EMC) part of the recovery process was to rebuild the paths
once recovered
powermt check (or powermt check force if you have to )
powermt config
powermt save
emc_cfgmgr
powermt display dev=all
Link

madhu sudan sasmal March 16, 2015, 6:22 pm

i want learn all the command for configuration storage in linux environment
Link

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