topic EVA Sparing Capacity in Disk Enclosures

EVA Sparing Capacity

Amy Bach_1 — Sun, 08 Aug 2004 11:45:39 GMT

Hi all,

Last Thursday we added 4 146GB drives to our existing EVA 5000. The existing drives were all 72GB disks and the sparing policy was set to double. After installing the new drives the Disk Group condition has an attention message regarding the sparing policy. The policy still shows as DOUBLE, however, the Actual level changed to Single due to available capacity. I was under the impression that the sparing capacity equal to 4 x 146GB would be used for sparing, thus freeing up the 4 x 72GB capacity that was previously used.

We have (4) more 146GB disks coming in next week, will adding more drives fix the warning?

Thanks!
-Amy

Re: EVA Sparing Capacity

Steven Clementi — Sun, 08 Aug 2004 16:21:11 GMT

Has the disk group finished leveling? If so, then there might be a larger issue. If not, I would wait until disk leveling is complete. Adding 4 146GB drives to an already tightly packed EVA can take a while to even out and you might not see accurate info until it is complete.

It would be best to install disks in groups of 8 or a multiple of 8. Not to say that adding 4 was a bad thing, the EVA just has an easier time figuring out the RSS when you give it 8 or 16 or 24 , 32 , 40 etc. disks to add to a group.

The 4 additional disks should help the situation, but you should definitely wait until leveling is complete before you 1. add them and 2. check to make sure your sparing has come back properly.

Steven

Re: EVA Sparing Capacity

Orrin — Sun, 08 Aug 2004 19:52:05 GMT

Hi Amy,

I agree with Steven, The attention message would have come up when you added the first disk, after the other disk were added, the EVA does not increase the sparing level automatically, and you have to return sparing to double, manually.

You are right in asusming that 4 x 146GB will be required for sparing, and when you change the sparing level to double now, it should look ok.

Regards,
Orrin.

Re: EVA Sparing Capacity

Amy Bach_1 — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 14:44:19 GMT

Sorry for the delay guys, the cause for my "problem", turned out to be the disk leveling. Once disk leveling was complete, the sparing capacity changed to Doubles as exptected.

Thank you so much for your help!

-Amy