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Re: Advise needed for HP LeftHand P4500 G2 San IQ Version 9.5 mixed with VSA

 
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rocksoft7
Occasional Contributor

Advise needed for HP LeftHand P4500 G2 San IQ Version 9.5 mixed with VSA

Hi,

 

I have 2 node P4500 G2 totaling 14.4TB (7.2TB + 7.2TB raw each) under network raid-0 due to out of space we have no choice to go for raid-0.

 

we have ordered another 2 nodes but only will come after 1 months and our storage almost out of space again as volume keep growing. we dont have any volume to be deleted so i was wondering while waiting for my new storage arrives can i temporary setup storage using VSA license. considering that i can find decent server hp branded and loaded it with same drive capacity and rpm speed.

 

1. is it ok to put this 1 node VSA (7.2TB) to join same management group of 2 nodes P4500 G2 (7.2TB + 7.2TB) ? then under network raid-0 i will gain few TB's of space while waiting for new storage to arrive..

 

2. im afraid i will face performance issue by mixing original P4500 with storage created by VSA even the VSA has same hdd speed.. can anyone share an insight?

 

3. can i add just 1 node (VSA) to existing 2 nodes P4500? im not sure since hp sells in 2 nodes so maybe need to increment by 2 nodes each time..pls advise.

 

4. when another 2 nodes arrives, i can put them under same management group and it will become 5 nodes storage where i can set volume redudandancy before removing the vsa permanently without downtime. is this correct way to remove vsa at the end, when my 2 nodes arrives?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

P.S. This thread has been moved from Storage Area Networks (SAN) (Small and Medium Business) to HP StoreVirtual Storage / LeftHand. - Hp forum Moderator

 

 

 

5 REPLIES 5
a_o
Valued Contributor
Solution

Re: Advise needed for HP LeftHand P4500 G2 San IQ Version 9.5 mixed with VSA

Since a StoreVirtual VSA install will give you a 60 day trial of all the features, I'll say go for it.

 

I would run away from NR0 as far as I can in a production environment.

 

Why don't you just get extra hard disks and run  2 VSA trials, each with  7.2 TB in NR10.  3x3TB SATA HDs can be had for about $300.

In your case, as you have no redundancy, even running the two VSA on the same physical server would be better than NR0. I would however, recommend putting them on two different physical servers.
This way you can migrate some LUNs to the VSA MG and reinstate NR10 on the P4500 for your critical data ASAP.

To answer your questions specifically,

1. is it ok to put this 1 node VSA (7.2TB) to join same management group of 2 nodes P4500 G2 (7.2TB + 7.2TB) ? then under network raid-0 i will gain few TB's of space while waiting for new storage to arrive..

IMO, you're looking for trouble with such a configuration.  As I said, using two new VSAs, I would create a new MG and cluster with NR10. Then I would clone the NR0 LUN (remote Snaphots) to the NR10 based VSAs.

 

2. im afraid i will face performance issue by mixing original P4500 with storage created by VSA even the VSA has same hdd speed.. can anyone share an insight?

When mixing models, your perfomance and other attributes of the MG and cluster with basically be limited by the "lowest common denominator"  That is, your entire cluster will be gated by the performance of the VSA. A VSA will nominally perform less than a NSM given the same hardware because of limitations in the VSA software and  the addition of the hypervisor layer.

 

 

3. can i add just 1 node (VSA) to existing 2 nodes P4500? im not sure since hp sells in 2 nodes so maybe need to increment by 2 nodes each time..pls advise.
Yes.. However, it's not true that HP only sells in 2 nodes or more. You can add nodes to your MG/cluster in incerements of one. HP sells all their P4000 models in single node configurations. 

 

4. when another 2 nodes arrives, i can put them under same management group and it will become 5 nodes storage where i can set volume redudandancy before removing the vsa permanently without downtime. is this correct way to remove vsa at the end, when my 2 nodes arrives?
Again, yes you can do that, but I would recommend not doing that in aproduction environment. Especially one that is currently based on NR0. IMO, theres just so much that can go wrong.

rocksoft7
Occasional Contributor

Re: Advise needed for HP LeftHand P4500 G2 San IQ Version 9.5 mixed with VSA

hi,

 

really thanks you for answering my advise request. as i understood based on your explanation.

 

- you advise me to create redundant vsa under NR10 . i have paid vsa licenses so no issue to create 2 vsa under raid-10.. i believe this is just to be safe just in case my newly creted vsa hdd failed unexpectedly.

 

- then you asked me to remote copy maybe 1 volume to vsa, and mount it as volume at vsa and make the production server read/write this volume from vsa. i need to choose maybe 1 less critical volume and let it run in vsa with less performance.

 

- then i will have more space at P4500. i can NR10 my other volume or just wait for my new storage nodes to arrives peacefully since i have space now after moving 1 volume to vsa.

 

1. my question would be, considering that i never play with remote copy with any volume..and after setup my vsa, i scheduled a remote copy for 2TB size volume, how much space this will take in my p4500? i believe remote copy will do snapshot first before copying the snaphot..will this snapshot itself takes 2TB size..or hudnreds of GB's, or not consume extra space at all? i only have like 200GB left..

 

kindly advise.

 

thanks

 

a_o
Valued Contributor

Re: Advise needed for HP LeftHand P4500 G2 San IQ Version 9.5 mixed with VSA

The simple answer is yes in both cases. To create a remote snapshot, a local snapshot is first taken. Taking a snapshot will consume the same amount of storage and use the same NR configuration as LUN being snapshotted.
HPstorageTom
HPE Pro

Re: Advise needed for HP LeftHand P4500 G2 San IQ Version 9.5 mixed with VSA

Why do you create a new Management Group?

I would add the VSA cluster into the same management group and use peer-motion to move volumes from one cluster to another cluster.

oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: Advise needed for HP LeftHand P4500 G2 San IQ Version 9.5 mixed with VSA

I agree with Tom here, I would just make sure to have the VSA nodes in a different cluster, but within the management group that way it makes moving the LUNs that much easier.  Assuming the VSAs are temporary I see no advantage to putting them in their own management group.