Vblock Setup Validation Failed. MDS is not enabled for NPIV

Environment: EMC Unified Infrastructure Manager/Provisioning – Version 4.1 P 01 (Build 4.1.0.1.598)

All of a sudden I could not provision any more datastores or, on close inspection, perform any changes to the Services.

The usual troubleshooting steps of restarting UIM services (service uim-device-services restart), restarting UIM appliance and Rediscovering Vblock did not help.

I tried to validate Vblock and it failed with the following result:

Rule Description:
NPIV provides a means to assign multiple port IDs to a single N Port. This feature allows multiple applications on the N Port to use different identifiers and allows access control, zoning, and port security to be implemented at the application level. You must globally enable NPIV for all VSANs on the MDS switch to allow the NPIV-enabled applications to use multiple N Port Identifiers.

Failure Description:
The MDS discovered in the Vblock does not have NPIV enabled. This is required as per the checklist in the UIM Deployment Prerequisites document.

Remedy Comment:
Configure NPIV feature on the MDS.

This is a weird message considering the switch in question is Ethernet switch, not SAN switch and NPIV validation is not applicable.

I have sent the database backup to UIM development team for analysis. Let’s wait what they come up with.

While we are waiting for the solution, here is a quick workaround:

You can change the Severity level for NPIV MDS validation test from ‘CRITICAL’ to ‘WARNING’ in UIM Configuration Manager:

1. Open UIM Configuration Cnter: Login to UIM management interface, click on the icon next to Logoff/Exit icon in the top right corner of the screen and launch Configuration Center.
   
   You need Java 7 and… It may take you a couple of attempts to launch it…
2. In the top menu click on Tools and select Automation Library (or press F3);
3. Navigate to Library Manager – UIM Devices – Vblock Setup Validation Tests – MDS – NPIV MDS;
4. Change the severity from ‘CRITICAL’ to ‘WARNING’;
   
5. Click Save;
6. Validate Vblock.

Why Ethernet switch gets validated with the MDS validation test? Is this another EMC UIM/P 4.1 bug?