topic Re: VA7400 Setup Help in Disk Enclosures

VA7400 Setup Help

Emil Henry — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 12:26:17 GMT

Hello!

Got a donation of a VA7400 (will be connected to 2 L2000 through a FC switch) that we are trying to setup. The VA has 6 73GB disks. We have a console connected directly to it. When we try to format it we get a "Not Enough Drives" error.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,

Emil

Re: VA7400 Setup Help

Torsten. — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 02:19:13 GMT

Hi Emil,

the VA7400 needs a minimum of 10 disk to operate, 5 in each redundancy group. You'll need 4 more disks!

Re: VA7400 Setup Help

krusty — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 11:04:04 GMT

HI Emil,

What probably happened is the folks who so generously donated the array to you may have snagged a few of the drives before sending to to you. One thing on the VA (and most array products for that matter), don't remove components with the array powered off. The array controllers don't like it. Think of it as you have your bedroom all in order before you go to bed, and when you wake up the next day it's all mixed up - you wouldn't like it, and neither to the controllers. Arrays hate to be messed with when power is off.

The fix is to format the array. Connect up to the serial port in the back, type "format" and that will bring you back to a clean config. Don't forget to create a small configuration LUN 0 of 10MB before you carve out data LUNs.

Sincerely,

Curt

Re: VA7400 Setup Help

Emil Henry — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 11:49:19 GMT

Torsten:

Thanks for the info.

What happens if I have only 4 disks per redundancy group?

Regards,

Emil

Re: VA7400 Setup Help

Emil Henry — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 11:53:09 GMT

Hi Curt!

Thanks for the info.

I moved 4 disks to RG1 and kept 2 disks on RG2, and was able to format it. Did create the 10 MB LUN 0.

I was thinking that I could get away with ordering 2 more disks (4 per RG). But, according to what Torsten says I need 4 more disks. Have asked for clarification.

Regards,

Emil

Re: VA7400 Setup Help

krusty — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 12:04:26 GMT

Hi Emil,

Good to hear it worked. All disk arrays (HP, EMC, IBM, et al) have a minimum number of drives to be functional The VA is 4. The more drives you add, the better the performance will be (to a point). Having more spindles increases I/O performance.

If you have Mission Critical HP support, you may want to contact your ASC and discuss how to layout your array, before you start loading data on it and putting it into production. A little design work now can save a lot in the future.

BTW, don't forget to assign points to those who assisted you. I am working towards a Pro hat! ;)

Thanks,

Curt