How to enable Solaris multipathing (MPxIO or STMS) for EMC Symmetrix LUNs

Oracle Solaris Storage Multipathing MPxIO provides multipath access to storage luns by grouping together the physical paths and presenting a single logical path. MPxIO can also be referred as STMS or SCSI_VHCI due to the commands used and logical device paths created. The post describes the step by step procedure to enable MPxIO for EMC Symmetrix LUNs.

For Solaris 8/9

Set the configuration parameters in the /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf file :

mpxio-disable="no";
load-balance="round-robin";
auto-failback="enable";
device-type-scsi-options-list="EMC     SYMMETRIX", "symmetric-option";
symmetric-option=0x1000000;

Take a reconfiguration reboot, for the changes to take effect :

# reboot -- -r

For Solaris 10

Set the configuration parameters in the /kernel/drv/fp.conf file :

mpxio-disable="no";

Set the configuration parameters in the /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf file :

load-balance="round-robin";
auto-failback="enable";
device-type-scsi-options-list="EMC     SYMMETRIX", "symmetric-option";
symmetric-option=0x1000000;

Take a reconfiguration reboot, for the changes to take effect :

# reboot -- -r

For Solaris 11

The location of the configuration files in Solaris 11 has changed. They are now located in /etc/driver/drv/ directory.

Set the configuration parameters in the /etc/driver/drv/fp.conf file :

mpxio-disable="no";

In case of Solaris 11, there is are no further changes required.