topic MSA 1000 active/active in MSA Storage

MSA 1000 active/active

Mihoum mounir — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:57:26 GMT

Hi,

I have two cluster nodes accessing a MSA 1000 through an active/passive controllers. An oracle database (without RAC) is running on my servers which are configured in active/passive server.

I would like to migrate my MSA 1000 from active/passive mode to active/active mode using the last version of the firmware.

1) Is there any benefits to do this for my configuration in term of performance if data are accessed via 2 controllers?

2) What is the procedure to migrate?

My exact configuration:
- Storage System (MSA 1000 SGM06069ZE) Firmware version = 1.86

- StorageWorks Modular SAN Array 1000 Controller Firmware version = 4.48

- HP Storage Works MSA SAN SWITCH 2/8
- Secure Path Version 4.0c SP1
- Smart Start 7.xx
- Windows 2000 advanced server + SP4
- Oracle 9i

Thks

Re: MSA 1000 active/active

Uwe Zessin — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:18:06 GMT

Oh, that means a lot of work. I am not sure if you can directly upgrade from 4.48 to V7 firmware, but you do need to replace Secure Path with the MSA Full Function MPIO.
Most likely you will have to upgrade the Fibre Channel adapter firmware and its device driver.
And there is firmware in the SAN Switch which might require an upgrade.

First thing to do is a full inventory with all details (e.g. what type of adapters and their software releases and the missing firmware versions.

Then a migration plan can be done.

Re: MSA 1000 active/active

James Muell — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:18:30 GMT

The doc @ the link below might explain the complete process. It was written for Win2003, but much should apply.

http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00841968/c00841968.pdf

Re: MSA 1000 active/active

Mihoum mounir — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:28:00 GMT

Thank you James

My 1st question was is there anay benefits in term of performance gain to do this migration for my configuration?

Re: MSA 1000 active/active

James Muell — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:29:05 GMT

The performance gain is relative to how your application is setup, ie. how you distribute and balance the I/O, on the luns your application is using across the 2 controllers. The MSA's active active firmware has some of this is built and uses thresholds to manage (move) a lun when there is two much traffic on one controller. I believe they are also ways to assign luns to specific controllers, or, at least assign lun ownership to them. One thing we have noticed about active active is when a host goes down, on reboot it may not see the path. Proper cabling is essential. Windows systems are more forgiving.