Deploying multiple virtual machines on DS8000 fails

Deploying multiple virtual machines on IBM System Storage® DS8000® storage fails with an error message - Failure prepping block device.

Investigation

Check the Cinder volume logs to determine whether the boot volume was successfully created before the deployment failure.

Explanation

DS8000 limitation on volume cascading copies requires each volume clone to finish successfully before the next clone can proceed. This can cause issues when multiple virtual machines with large volumes are deployed.

Resolution

Set the deploy timeout to accommodate longer deploy times by using the command - powervc-config storage timeouts --types deploy_clone --timeout-intervals # --minutes #. It is recommended to set the total timeout to 90 minutes or more.