Disk Enclosures
1748046 Members
4952 Online
108757 Solutions
New Discussion юеВ

Re: EVA leveling and reconstruction

 
SOLVED
Go to solution
charlie_bulosan
Frequent Advisor

EVA leveling and reconstruction

Hi All,

I have found the following statement from the EVA4000/6000/8000 Configuration Be
st Practices HP document. On page 13, it states --

Leveling and reconstruction. Leveling and reconstruction performance can be opt
imized with a minimum of 5 GB of free space per disk group.

Best practice to optimize availability. Set the occupancy alarm to the larger o
f the capacity required for PDM or the total HP Continuous Access EVA write hist
ory log capacity, plus 5 GB. This capacity is converted into a percentage of the
raw capacity and then rounded to the next largest whole number. The pseudo-Exce
l formula would be (see footnotes for description of functions):

Occupancy_Alarm = 100 тАУ ceiling ( ( max ( PDM_capacity, HP Continuous Access_log
_sum) + 5GB ) / total_disk-group_raw_capacity ) )

On the above formula, what is the meaning/equivalent of ceiling and PDM_capacit
y? For the following example in one of our EVA6000 disk group (taken from Comman
dview EVA):
Total Capacity : 8473 GB
Vraid5 Capacity : 1471 GB
Total Occupancy : 6633 GB
Protection Level : 1
Size of disks used : 146GB

Would you be able to calculate the above Occupancy Alarm? We don't use Continuous Access.

What's the implication of using the minimum of 5GB as mentioned above? In REALity, is 5GB ok?


Many Thanks,
Charlie Bulosan
10 REPLIES 10
Bernd Reize
Trusted Contributor

Re: EVA leveling and reconstruction

Hi Charlie,

5gb is not enough, you should reserve space for PDM events, too.
Each PDM event needs twice the amount of space of the largest disk in the diskgroup. In your case that would be 146gb * 2 = 292gb
Plus the 5gb extra 297gb.

Applying the HP formula this would lead to an occupancy alarm level of 96%
The reason for this alarm level is when a disks fails the EVA needs enough free space to reconstruct it so that vraid1/vraid5 protection is still in place.
This is compareable to other storage systems using a dedicated hot spare drive for the same reason.

regards,
Bernd
charlie_bulosan
Frequent Advisor

Re: EVA leveling and reconstruction

Hi Bernd,

Could you describe what is PDM?


Many Thanks,
Charlie
Bernd Reize
Trusted Contributor

Re: EVA leveling and reconstruction

Hi Charlie,

PDM is proactive disk management. I have no idea why it is called proactive. It works reactive normally when a disk fails or when you add/remove disks and so on
charlie_bulosan
Frequent Advisor

Re: EVA leveling and reconstruction

Hi Bernd,

Have you experienced a situation on your EVA Disk Group where the required by Leveling and Reconstruction/Occupancy Alarm is similar to that of 96% ... and an event of failed disk on that DG?


Thanks,
Charlie
Bernd Reize
Trusted Contributor
Solution

Re: EVA leveling and reconstruction

Hi Charlie,

the alarm level itself harmless, it only triggers an event message when the occupancy level reached the alarm threshold, nothing more.

We once had such a situation with a very occupied eva. Usage was about 95% (alarm level 96%) and then a disk failed. So when reconstructing the disk the EVA reached the alarm level (due to the missing failed disk) and sent an event message. As soon as we replaced the failed disk the occupancy alarm went off again.

The only important thing to keep in mind is to always have enough free space to allow reconstruction of a failed disk otherwise you would have no raid protection until the disk is replaced.

Regards,
bernd
Rob Leadbeater
Honored Contributor

Re: EVA leveling and reconstruction

Hi Charlie,

I used to run a couple of EVA5000s with the occupancy alarm set to 100%. If it was set any lower it would alarm continually !

These would have disk failures quite regularly without any problems - as long as the disks were replaced quickly.

You don't have to leave extra space for PDM events. It's just a recommendation...

Cheers,

Rob
charlie_bulosan
Frequent Advisor

Re: EVA leveling and reconstruction

Bernd/Rob,

Thanks for helping me out on this. At least now, we are not that much worried if a Disk Group reach to at least 95%.


Many Thanks,
Charlie
Pat Obrien_1
Regular Advisor

Re: EVA leveling and reconstruction

with occupancy at 98%, I had a 2 disk fail simutaneously. It was so bad the hosts lost access to the EVA for just over 2 days while leveling occurred. I now run 90% and have a lot less issues with leveling times.
charlie_bulosan
Frequent Advisor

Re: EVA leveling and reconstruction

Hi Pat,

I have raised a case with HP about this and their answer was if there are two simultaneous disk failure, the Disk Group will not survive. Two non-simultaneous will be fine.


Many Thanks,
Charlie