topic Re: MSA1000 - does it have a preferred controller? in MSA Storage

MSA1000 - does it have a preferred controller?

Jan Estall — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 07:36:39 GMT

I have an MSA1000 connected to a W2K3 cluster and an assortment of other W2K3 servers. I have noticed that normally the active/active MSA1000 controller seems to be controller 1. If I do a forced failover to contrioller 2 (by unplugging controller 1, in order to get the ACU to 'see' the HBA in slot 2 of a newly added server)controller 2 remains as the active/active controller, until I reboot any of the servers attached to the SAN. As the server comes back up the active/active role switches back to controller 1. Does anyone know if that is by design or is there a configuration or firmware (currently version 4.48) issue here?

Re: MSA1000 - does it have a preferred controller?

Uwe Zessin — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 07:54:51 GMT

If you boot a server and the MSA1000 does a 'failback', this is initiated from the server. The controllers do not swap roles on their own.

Re: MSA1000 - does it have a preferred controller?

Jan Estall — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 08:13:58 GMT

Hi Uwe
The majority of the servers connected to the SAN are HP DL360 G4s (running W2K3 or W2K3 Enterprise) with 2 QLogic HBAs installed. Our MSA1000 controller 1 is connected via one switch to all the HBAs in slot 2 of each server and controller 2 is connected via another switch to all the HBAs in slot 1 of each server which seems to imply that HBA slot 2 is the 'preferred' slot. Have you or any one else, any ideas or thoughts on that theory?
Regards
Jan