Presenting MSA1500 and EVA5000 storage to the same host

[Bluey Palmer]

Hi All,

We have just bought an MSA1500 and are looking to add it to our SAN infrastructure. We currently have 2 x 2/32 B-Series SAN switches - using port zoning - and an EVA5000 with about 16 SAN attached hosts. The hosts are a mixture of Windows 2000/2003 and VMware 2.5.3 and 3.0 servers. We are running Secure Path 4.0c sp2-1 on the Windows servers with a mixture of Emulex and QLogic HBA’s - (each server has either Emulex or QLogic HBA’s but not both). The MSA controller is running firmware 5.10 build 4.14, the EVA is running VCS code 3.028 and the switch fabric OS is 4.4.0b.

I am wondering if I can present LUN’s from both the MSA1500 and the EVA5000 to the same host? We can either include the MSA and EVA in the same zone as the host or have separate zones for each storage system. Does anyone know which is a supported configuration?

Regards,
Bluey

[kevin joubert_1]

MSA1500 and EVA5000 being seen from the same host is generally supported. It probably has not been through any qualification procedures, but should work fine.

I would recommend separate zones.

[Bluey Palmer]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the response, I'll do some further digging and if I find a definitive answer I'll post it here.

Cheers,
Bluey

[Sandy Chen]

Hi Bluey,

It should work fine. Either you are using same zones or on a seperate zones. Recomended one is to use a seperate zones.

regards,
Sandy

[The Spartan · Accepted solution]

Yes you can present the LUNs to the same host.

Note:
1. Since both are running A/P firmwares, you can chose MPIO basic as the multipathing s/w.

2. Ensure that if you upgrade firmware of anyone of them, then the config may not be supported

3. If you upgrade fmware of both, to A/A then you can use MPIO advaced. The config is supported.

4. MPIO - download from hp.com

Regds.

[Bluey Palmer]

Hi Sandy and The Spartan,

Thanks for the responses, I'm now comfortable with presenting the different storage types to the same host.

Regards,
Bluey

[Bluey Palmer]

UPDATE:

I have now been running storage presented from the MSA1500 and the EVA5000 to the same server for a number of months now without any issues. Both storage units are in separate zones on the SAN switches. Thanks to Kevin, Sandy and The Spartan. I'm now closing this thread.