IBM DS4300 and 64-bit Windows (EM64T)

Good day, all.

I'm curious if anyone out there has any experience, positive or negative,
in trying to connect an IBM DS4300 (Turbo) with two multi-pathed
connections to a single host (IBM X346) running Windows Server 2003 SP1 R2
64-bit (EM64T, not Itanium).

I saw a similar question posted here from several months back (no
responses), but I'm hoping that, since then, someone has come across a
similar situation.

From what I'm reading, it appears that Windows won't support the RDAC
drivers that are provided in IBM Storage Manager installation wizard, and
that the DS4000 Storage Manager software, which must be installed on a
fibre-connected host, won't work with 64-bit Windows (AMD64 or EM64T) with
the most current level of device firmware.

Our initial plan was to install two HBA's in the X346 server and use RDAC
to connect to the two controllers on the DS4300. Now it looks like one of
the HBAs would have to end up in a co-located 32-bit machine which,
effectively, would solve both problems while taking away the configuration
we were hoping for.

IBM does promise support for 64-bit Windows sometime in the 3rd quarter of
2006, but it «is» the 3rd quarter of 2006 and noone that we've contacted at
IBM seems all that confident, and I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks in advance for the insight.

Richard

"Ole Thomsen" wrote in
:

"Richard" wrote in message
. 97.136...


IBM does promise support for 64-bit Windows sometime in the 3rd
quarter of 2006, but it «is» the 3rd quarter of 2006 and noone that
we've contacted at
IBM seems all that confident, and I'm not holding my breath.

Until june 9. support was scheduled for Q2.....

There only seems to be two solutions, go for 32bit (which is possible
on EM64T) or singlepath. We did the first, but I know others in the
same situation who chose singlepath.

Oh well, third solution is choosing another SAN vendor, unfortunately
that was not possible for me.

Ole Thomsen




Ole --

I apparently spoke too soon.

What wasn't on the IBM website in the morning, was there later in the
day. We found drivers, firmware and Storage Manager software all
compatible with Windows 2003 EM64T 64-bit operating system. The two SANs
are up and running without any problems at all.

Thanks for your advice.

Richard

"Richard" wrote in message
. 97.136...

What wasn't on the IBM website in the morning, was there later in the
day. We found drivers, firmware and Storage Manager software all
compatible with Windows 2003 EM64T 64-bit operating system. The two SANs
are up and running without any problems at all.

With RDAC multipath?

According to
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/storag...rop-matrix.pdf
page 15 it is not a supported setup except for DS4700 and DS4800.

I'm glad it works for you, but my concern is that one might end up in a
situation where IBM rejects to help.

Ole Thomsen