MDS600 with P711m

[Wojtek Narczynski]

Hello,

If I connect P711m, via 3G SAS Switch, to MDS600, am I going to see the SAS drives, to the delight of Solaris ZFS?

Thank you.

P.S. This thread has been moevd from General to Disk array. - Hp Forum Moderator

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hi,

I guess for ZFS you want to see the raw disk devices (JBOD).

in the MDS600 you select (they call it zone..) which physical disks in the MDS600 should be seen by which blades. So no RAID functionality in the MDS600 - it's all done by the mezzanine card in the blade.

As far as I can tell you still need to do the configuration in ACU - set up RAID or arrays.

But I may be wrong. Would be nice if I was.

[Wojtek Narczynski]

Currently I have P700m Smart Array controller, but it is too Smart. It doesn't present drives, that are not part of any array, to the host.

I think P711m might be different, but I don't have one, and I am hesitant to buy one just to check this.

[gregersenj]

Have you Solved This?

Smart Array controllers will present logical drives only, to the host O/S.

In othe words, you must configure 1 or more logical drives.

You can configure the Smart Array using the following tools.

1. Orca - Press F8 key when promptet by the SA during POST.

2. ACU - From a running OS or Boot on a Smart Start CD.

3. The Smart Start tool kit

If you got a number of disks, that you want to present to the OS, as if they were "physical" disks.

You must create a number of RAID 0, with 1 disk each.

But If you are going the create a software RAID, I will recommend to use HW RAID.

In your case, wher you got a MDS + SAS Switch + Smart Array.

1. From the SAS switch manager - Create a Zone, holding the disks you want for the host.

2. Present the Zone , to the server bay.

3. Boot the server

4. configure the Smart Array. (Orca or ACU).

I will recommend the follwing reading:

User guide for the SAS switch.

The cabling guide for the MDS.

Smart Array technology brief.

Managing arrays on HP Smart Array.

BR

/jag