Swapping 72GB Drives for 300GB Drives within EVA 5000

[SANLADY]

We have an EVA 5000 (2C12D) that is fully packed with 72 GB hard drives. We would like to swap out 24 72 GB drives and replace them with 300 GB drives. The EVA was configured with two disk groups and each of them uses Single Sparing. Can the swap be done? If so, will the disk group recognize the 300 GB drives as the smallest drive within the disk group (72 GB drive)? Is there any documentation written for swapping out smaller drives for larger ones.

[Ivan Ferreira]

I have done a couple of times. What you should do, is first set the protectio level to none, then calculate how much free space you need before activating again, because once you put in the 300 GB disks, you single protectio level will change to 600 GB reserved.

So, this means that you should keep protection level to none until you group at least 2 300 GB disks. You should add and group disks in pairs of two. Leveling will take a long time, so, when more disks you add at a time, better.

You have to ungroup the disks you want to replace, and then remove the disk using the remove button.

Don't forget to check the controllers and disks firmware.

[Uwe Zessin]

If you are very unlucky, you will not gain any additional storage. The reason is that the EVA always binds two disk drives together to predefine VRAID-1 mirrors, even if you don't use this level. If the EVA decides to marry a 72GB and a 300GB disk drive, the effective capacity is 72GB.

The EVA might also change the mirror setup for worse when disk drives fail and get replaced - there is no control over this behavior.

I suggest you use a separate disk group, even if this means you lose 600GB for another single sparing.

[Peter Mattei]

... and, do not forget to check the release note of your EVA firmware if it supports 300GB drives.
If you are on >=VCS4.001 or >=VCS3.028 you are ok.
Nevertheless try to upgrade to the latest versions 4.100 or 3.110

Cheers
Pete

[Peter Mattei]

about documentation.
You find some info about mixed capacities in this EVA3/5000 whitepaper

http://h71028.www7.hp.com/ERC/downloads/4AA1-5215ENW.pdf


Then, to calculate your net capacities I recommend using the HP StorageWorks Sizer from http://h30144.www3.hp.com/SWDSizerWeb/

Install it on your desktop computer then set your preferences.
Use Representation 1k = 1024 bytes in order to get real capacity values!!

On the welcome screen select option 4: Size and ...
Then select Launch EVA ...
Choose array type: EVA5000
Then you can build your array and check out what happens if you change something!!

Cheers
Pete