topic Re: EVA Generation 2 Queries in Disk Enclosures

EVA Generation 2 Queries

Sharjeel Saleem — Mon, 14 May 2007 03:04:36 GMT

Hi,

1. Can anyone confirming me the secure path is necessary for generation 2 eva since its active/active communication structure?

2. If we add more disks in disk group it will decrease performance or not?

-Sharjeel

Re: EVA Generation 2 Queries

Prabhulj — Mon, 14 May 2007 03:29:55 GMT

Hi Sharjeel,

Secure path is not supported with Active/Active Configurations on
Windows Systems.

Reason:

The binding cannot work because the RaiDisk.sys does not recognize an
HSV2x0 LUN as a LUN it should bind to because the .inf cannot
identify it as a supported device.

Securepath on Windows is only for Active/Passive EVA (3000/5000) or for
VA/XP by installing the Autopath portion.

But for Active/Active EVA (4000/6000/8000) is only supported via MPIO Full Feature.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/ProductList.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=18964&prodSeriesId=421492&taskId=135

How many disks would you be adding to a single diskgroup?

Hope this answers your query?

Regards,
Prabhu

Re: EVA Generation 2 Queries

Sharjeel Saleem — Mon, 14 May 2007 04:28:47 GMT

Yup MPIO (Full Featured DSM) for Windows but we still need secure path for HPUX? if yes dat means secure path needed for generation 2....

We have 36disks in EVA 4000 storage...but the question is general for performance related within a disk group.

-Sharjeel

Re: EVA Generation 2 Queries

Mario_66 — Mon, 14 May 2007 05:24:53 GMT

Hi,

as multipath solution you can use Pvlinks and therefore you do not need SecurePath. But, PVlinks have some limits and you should take them into consideration.

More disks will increase performance of DG.

BR,
Mario.

Re: EVA Generation 2 Queries

Sharjeel Saleem — Mon, 14 May 2007 10:23:26 GMT

OK dat means if we are using PVLinks for multipathing then we dont need to use secure path v3.0F???
After adding a disk in a disk group dat will improve the performance or availablity?what is da best answer...i m confuse...:(

Re: EVA Generation 2 Queries

Torsten. — Mon, 14 May 2007 11:51:45 GMT

Hi,

you can use autopath for load balacing with HP-UX 11.11 and 11.23, but it is enough to use pvlinks and balance the links across the HBAs.

With HP-UX 11.31 the load balancing is built-in the new mass storage stack.

Re: EVA Generation 2 Queries

Peter Mattei — Mon, 14 May 2007 12:02:42 GMT

HP strategy is providing native path failover (MP) solutions without the need for proprietary SW like Secure Path (SP).

So EVA4/6/8000 can be operated with OS built in MP soltions.
The only OS where you still can optionally use Secure Path is HP-UX (actually it is Autopath built in to SP)

For MP on HP-UX 11.x you can use either:
- pvlink
- Securepath
- DMP (part of Symantec Storage Suite)

For more details see the HP SAN Design Guide Chapter 8, page 142 ff on http://www.hp.com/go/sandesign

Cheers
Peter

Re: EVA Generation 2 Queries

Sharjeel Saleem — Tue, 15 May 2007 03:04:14 GMT

Thanks for the valuable comments...

Re: EVA Generation 2 Queries

Peter Mattei — Tue, 15 May 2007 03:12:40 GMT

Please dont forget to assign points to valuable answers!

Cheers Peter