How to add one disk enclosure to EVA 3K?

[rongliang.zhang]

Hello,

Now I have one disk enclosure in which ten disks inserted, and I have installed the box into the rack, the next step is to connect the box to loop, but I have some question needed your help.

current configure:
2C2D no loop switch
disk size: 300G
disk group: default

Add-on:
One disk enclosure: 10 * 300G

1. Will the new disks be assigned to the default disk group or a new disk group? which one is better?

2. If assigning the new disks to default disk group, how to add? 1) one by one: group one disk to the default disk group, and waiting the leveling complete, and do next; 2) group all disks to the default disk group. If groupig one by one, the add-on time window is very long, perhaps it will be many days. If grouping all disks once, how to do this?

3. After adding new disks to existing Disk Group, the leveling begin, the time is very long. During the leveling, Can the vdisk be create, and present the LUN to host?

Please give me your greate advice, and best practice. thanks.

[DragomirAtea · Accepted solution]

Hi!

I'll try to answer your questions...

1. No! They will appear under "ungrouped disks". The only reasons to use multiple diskgroups are.
* Different size of disks
* Different I/O patterns (random or sequential)

If you dont have different I/O patterns you should add the disks to the default diskgroup.

2. Ususally I would group all disks at the same time. When you go to the default disk group you click on the add disk, there you can choose the number of disks to add. Choose to group all 10 disks, I think it will tell you that you can group 10 disks as a max. The max number depends on the number of disks you have added.

3. As far as I know you can continue to create vdisks and present them to the host. Maybe it will take some time because of the load the leveling causes.

regards
Dragomir Zekic

[rongliang.zhang]

Thanks, Dragomir Zekic.

I have another question:

One month ago, the vcs FW was upgraded from 3.020 to 3.028, and the drive FW was upgraded with the FW "drivefw_off_3028.sss".
After add-on, will the drive FW be upgraded?

Thanks.

[DragomirAtea]

Hmmm!

Actually, I dont have a clue...

I would call HP to be sure...

Or maybe some of the other wizards in here know...

Regards
Dragomir

[Uwe Zessin]

The controller software only includes firmware for the EMU in the disk drive enclosures, not disk drive firmware - these days the offline upgrade firmware is much larger than the controller firmware.

[rongliang.zhang]

thanks all, I will check.

[rongliang.zhang]

During I prepare the action plan for adding disk enclosure to EVA 3K, I am looking in the EVA service Guard and EVA configuration Guard, find some doubt, can anyone help me?

The problem is how to add the enclosure to EVA 3K, online or offline?

In the configuration guard, there is the following description:
"Adding FC Drive Enclosures to a Rack
An HP Authorized Service Representative can add FC drive enclosures to a rack while the
Enterprise Virtual Array is on or off. HP highly recommends that the Enterprise Virtual Array is turned off while adding FC drive enclosures to a rack. If the HP Authorized Service Representative would like to add an FC drive enclosure to the rack with the power on, the service representative should take care to disconnect and connect one Fibre Channel loop at a time."

"HP highly recommends that the Enterprise Virtual Array is turned off while adding FC drive enclosures to a rack."
That is to say, the best way is to add the enclosure offline.

But in the ServiceGuard, all steps is based on adding the enclosure online.

Which one will I choose, online or offlien?
Which one is more security?

Hope someone can answer me.

Best regards,
Rongliang Zhang

[Leon Rosier]

offline is more safe because normally you would have made a backup of your data. I would let HP do the job, they can monitor the loops after the upgrade, to make sure they are stabile,
they are also able to upgrade the diskfirmware if necessary.

Leon

[Uwe Zessin]

Um, I request a backup before _any_ hardware work on an array.

[Leon Rosier]

...True, but i did some online enclosure upgrades just because the customer did not want to have down time. So no up to date backup!!....
Customer takes the risk!!

Leon