One of the many tools in your XIV toolkit is the Host Attachment Kit or HAK. Two of my favorite commands provided by the HAK are xiv_attach and xiv_fc_admin which we use to configure our hosts. Of course users want to be exactly sure what changes these commands might make and while the current output gives some good information, some of our users wanted more. So the good news is that the XIV Host Attachment Kit version 1.7.1 is now available and the Windows and Linux versions now have a new extra verbose mode which you can access with the -i parameter as shown:
xiv_attach -i xiv_fc_admin -i
By using -i with the commands you will see in even more detail what changes are needed to configure your host to attach to an XIV, but without any changes actually being performed (which is a very cool thing). If you still need more information on the output you can use Appendix A of the updated XIV Host Attachment Kit Users Guide, which you can get from here. The guide has some very useful information on best practices and VMware setup and is really mandatory reading for people using XIV.
To be clear the new verbose parameter only works with HAK version 1.7.1, which you can download from here. Other notable changes in version 1.7.1 are over 40 bug fixes and over 20 improvements, including support for RHEL 5.7, 6.1, and 6.2 (but please check the SSIC to confirm support).
As I previously blogged, the XIV Host Attachment Kit now comes in a portable version. This means you can run the HAK commands without having to first install any software or make any changes on your server. When you download the HAK you get both the portable and full installer versions.
In other news the XIV Host Software team now have their own blog! Check it out here and add it to your RSS list.
