topic MSA20 disk limitations in MSA Storage

MSA20 disk limitations

Shaunc69 — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 15:26:35 GMT

Hi all

We have a MSA20 with 12 x 2TB drives and we have created 2 x RAID 5 arrays from the disk. WIndows server 2008 R2 disk manager only see's 2TB for each array. I am assuming the MSA20 needs a firmware update but cannot locate a firmware anywhere on HP's website.

Interestingly, Smart Start see's a Smart Array 6400 and after you create the array, the ACU see's the disks attached to this. The ACU in Windows however shows the disks attachged to an MSA20. Also Device manager does not see the MSA20, just the 6400 controller.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Shaun

Re: MSA20 disk limitations

Jimmy Vance — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 16:54:18 GMT

You need to switch to GPT partitions to overcome the 2TB limit with MBR styled msdos partitions

Re: MSA20 disk limitations

Shaunc69 — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 08:11:24 GMT

Thank you for replying. I had already tried this configuration and Windows still only shows the array size as 2TB.

I have read on other forums that the controller needs a firmware update. Icannot locate a firmware update for either the MSA20 or the Array 6400.

Re: MSA20 disk limitations

Jan Soska — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 18:19:45 GMT

I am afraid 2TB is hardware maximum of one LUN in MSA20. If you need bigger LUNs in you OS, use OS native tools to creat software raid form hw LUNs presented form MSA50. Typicaly dynamic disks under Windows.

Newer firware could brig support for bigger drives, but nothing new as your MSA50 is quite old.

Jan