c3000 with bl460C blade servers and (A7445B)

[jason blake]

Hi Guys .

We are thinking of getting a c3000 enclosure containing some BL460C blade servers. Is there a way of getting a HP StorageWorks Rack-Mount Kit (A7445B)working with the c3000 enclosure. I believe the A7445B has an external ultra320 LVD inteface. Or would I have to purchase a
storage works tape blade ?

thanks for any responses

[kris rombauts]

Hi Jason,

since none of the blades have external U320 SCSI connections, the only way to connect this external tape rack unit would be to purchase a PCI expansion blade and add a U320 SCSI PCI/PCI-e card and then use a (external) cable to connect the tape rack to the SCSI card. Note that the cable will be coming out of the chassis on the front side, so not a nice view and care has to be taken not to touch/damage the cable when the rack door is closed.


So i would shoot for the tape blade.
Remember that partner blades like the tape and disk storage blades have a one-to-one relationship with their server blade, so this means only one blade in the C3000/C7000 chassis can see the tape blade as a local device on it's PCI bus, so the Ultrium tape blade cannot be shared to all server blades in the chassis unlike a tape or disk array can be shared to all servers on a SAN i.e.


HTH

Kris

[jason blake]

Thanks for the reply Kris.

I did not realise that only one blade would be able to see the Tape Blade. IS there any sort of tape solution where all the blades in the c3000 would be able to use it as a means of backup ?

thanks

[kris rombauts]

Jason,

there is a shared SAS solution but that requires you to get:

- SAS 3 GB interconnect
- one SmartArray p700m in each server blade
- external SAS based tape/disk backup
solution i.e. MDS600 but this might be
overkill for your environment, not sure.

Have a look on HP.COM for the above specifications of those products.


HTH

Kris

[jason blake]

thanks for the reply kris.

I think the mds600 is a bit overkill.
Would this SAS device be ok "HP STORAGEWORKS 1/8 G2 LTO3 ULTRIUM 920 SAS AH558A" to create shared tape backup to the blades ?

Unless this could be used ? "HP D2D2502i SmartBuy Backup System (EJ001SB)" This disk system has iscsi connectivity, and has tape offloading to.

[Michael Reagan]

Jason,
The D2D2502i would be the better choice as long as your OS is lited under supported OS.

M

[gregersenj]

Just a comment on external tape vs tapeblade.

From a backup point of view, there's no difference having a external tape drive connected to one server vs a Tapeblade connected to blade.
Its the same 1 sever, 1 tapedrive and only 1 tape.
You still can backup from all servers to 1 tape drive through a backup server.

Note with the tapeblade, there's only licens for 1 server. Out of the box.

Depending on what use you have for your interconnect bays.
You could use a SAS switch and auto loader.
Or if you have a small SAN, then you could
choose a FC solution.

BR
/jag