OK some more clues: if i deactivate and reactivate the zdevs, the nodes for the partitions do not appear. If I remove multipath-tools and deactivate and reactivate the zdevs, the nodes for the partitions *do* appear. If I install multipath-tools and remove /lib/udev/rules.d/60-multipath.rules and deactivate and reactivate the zdevs, the nodes for the partitions still appear.
OK some more clues: if i deactivate and reactivate the zdevs, the nodes for the partitions do not appear. If I remove multipath-tools and deactivate and reactivate the zdevs, the nodes for the partitions *do* appear. If I install multipath-tools and remove /lib/udev/ rules.d/ 60-multipath. rules and deactivate and reactivate the zdevs, the nodes for the partitions still appear.