topic Re: HSG80 AND DYNAMIC DISK SUPPORT in MSA Storage

HSG80 AND DYNAMIC DISK SUPPORT

CA959337 — Thu, 30 Oct 2003 06:48:57 GMT

I have a fully redundent multibus failover configuration on my compaq san, running ACS version 8.7f1 sp3 , running w2003 enterprise server, dual host bus adapters in each of the two servers, and running securpath version 4.0 (which has the added dynamic disk support).

I have been told that I can configure the disk arrays on my san in dynamic disk configuration but I fail to see how as they are not given to me with this option through the disk administrator in w2003, only basic disk config still applies.
Can any body tell me if it is possible to get dynamic disk configuration working on a MA8000/HSG80 SAN

Re: HSG80 AND DYNAMIC DISK SUPPORT

BR719778 — Fri, 31 Oct 2003 03:55:35 GMT

Hello,

basic and dynamic do not depend on disk storage hardware type.

But:

In order to convert a basic disk to dynamic, you need some small amount of free space on the disk! Here "disk" means device that is presented in the Windows disk manager. So your primary partition and extended partitions on the basic disk should NOT take all available space on the disk.

If disk is unallocated, you have option to create dynamic disk right from the beginning.

If you have free (unallocated) space on the existing basic disk, you can convert to dynamic without data loss.

If there are no free unallocated space on the basic disk, the only way to convert is to backup your data, delete at least the last partition, and then convert that disk to dynamic, followed by restoring your backup.

I am not sure about Windows 2003, but in Windows 2000 cluster dynamic disks cannot be used for cluster disks - only basic disks are supported. This limitation is for clusters ONLY.

Re: HSG80 AND DYNAMIC DISK SUPPORT

dentistcorn — Tue, 04 Nov 2003 20:07:25 GMT

FYI: we just went through a serious outage for being at 8.7-1. You may want to consider patching to -4.

Re: HSG80 AND DYNAMIC DISK SUPPORT

david5337_1 — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 04:14:20 GMT

I confirm that you needs to install the sp4 for ACS