topic HP LeftHand San in StoreVirtual Storage

HP LeftHand San

shageen — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:07:17 GMT

I am having 2 lefthand San configured with 2 way replication Raid 5.If one hadware box goes offline will i be able to access the vloume ?
how to get redendency if one BOX goes faulty ?
is there any way to configure HPlefthand in such a way if one box goes also we can access volumes

Re: HP LeftHand San

Uwe Zessin — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:47:37 GMT

You need a third entity to act as a quorum or tie-braker.

For manual failovers, you can add a "Virtual Manager" to the management group. Careful! Do not start it! It must only be started on the surviving node!

For automatic failovers you need a third manager. That can be a 3rd storage node with the same capacity (you can then run Network RAID-10 [even with 3 nodes!] or Network RAID-10+1 [data stored 3 times]).
There is also a 'stripped down' version of a storage node available which is called a "FailOver Manager" (in short: FOM). It does not offer storage, but provides a 3rd manager to the management group.

Re: HP LeftHand San

shageen — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:38:44 GMT

so i need to buy one more box if i am not wrong and then configure raid 10

Re: HP LeftHand San

Uwe Zessin — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:50:38 GMT

Didn't you write that you have two(2) P4000 boxes? That way you can already do Network RAID-10 and manual failovers with the "Virtual Manager".

If you don't need additional capacity, and want automatic failovers, you can use the FOM. It is available as a virtual machine and works on VMware Server or VMware ESX. True, you need a third system, but it need not be a P4000 storage node.

Re: HP LeftHand San

ajamil786 — Wed, 19 May 2010 01:44:53 GMT

FOM is a better option because of automatic failover and independence from the physical nodes.

Re: HP LeftHand San

Steve McGee — Wed, 19 May 2010 02:38:32 GMT

On your installation media there are two options. One is a failover manager (FOM) to run within windows and the other is failover manager for ESX. My suggestion would be to use the FOM for ESX assuming you have any ESX servers within your environment. If so, install the FOM for ESX on local storage to one of the ESX boxes. Installation is simple and the FOM requires very little storage and resources to operate. This will make your life much easier!