HP StorageWorks 30 with a dead battery pack

[Timothy Nibbe]

I have an HP StorageWorks 30 with a dead battery pack. Our VAR rep said that he is unable to get new batteries, but that we have a new-in-box (one year old) sa6402 controller in our spares cabinet -- with batteries. The VAR tech has talked us into replacing the controller and has even said that he will swap the controller out; the problem is that he is now unsure how to do it. I have not been able to find documentation about how to replace the controller, and therefore, I do not have a warm fuzzy feeling.

Can anybody give me a general procedure for replacing a controller or batteries in this array, or point me toward a document? I suspect that replacing the batteries might be easier, and probably safer, than swapping the entire controller.

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

Can you confirm exactly which controller you've currently got...?

Assuming you mean an MSA30, that doesn't have a battery, it's just a disk shelf. The battery will be in whatever controller the shelf is connected to.

Cheers,

Rob

[Timothy Nibbe]

I will have to travel to the datacenter to verify that it is StorageWorks 30; the VAR does much of the datacenter hardware work and has told me that it is a StorageWorks 30. sautil reports that the controller is an sa6402. From the front it looks like a StorageWorks 30, I will have to verify it myself. sautil reports:

Controller Product Number........... A9890A
Controller Product Name............. HP PCI-X SmartArray 6402

Battery Pack Count.................. 2
Battery Status (pack #1)............ FAILED
Battery Status (pack #2)............ ok

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

You've almost certainly got a SmartArray 6402 that has one or more of its external ports connected to an MSA30.

The configuration for those is stored on the disks themselves, so if you don't want the hassle of changing the batteries, you can just swap the whole controller, and everything should just come back as it was before.

Cheers,

Rob

[Timothy Nibbe]

Thank you very much. I am assuming that I just have to shutdown the server, replace the controller, and then reboot normally; am I correct? I also assume that the batteries will report failed for some length of time until they are charged.

[Rob Leadbeater · Accepted solution]

Yes. That should be all there is to it.

Cheers,

Rob

[Timothy Nibbe]

Thank you very much; I now know what needs to be done to replace the controller.