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Mission impossible? - xp256 data survival

 

Mission impossible? - xp256 data survival

I'd like to move some array group to other xp subsystem without data loss. I am expecting just little chance of the magic for this impossible mission.

Any idea?
9 REPLIES 9
Victor BERRIDGE
Honored Contributor

Re: Mission impossible? - xp256 data survival

Hi,
I dont quite get you, are you willing to move physically a complete array of drives from one XP to another or what?
If not, why dont you rely on what you have (almost the best you can have when you cannot have an XP512 or XP48) to do what you want without any risk...

All the best
Victor (Whos waiting for his HDS9960...)

Re: Mission impossible? - xp256 data survival

Thank you for your quick response.
I meant physical movement by that.
Please ignore my question.It is not real situation at all.I guess it was not proper topic for this forum. Sorry for confusing you.

P.S:9960 is new product of Hitachi?
Victor BERRIDGE
Honored Contributor

Re: Mission impossible? - xp256 data survival

HDS 9960 is the new lighning series, its HP denomination is XP512, there is a new (few weeks) 9910 that is sold by HP as XP48 (meaning it supports 48 disks, or was it connections..., but I heard it will not be long before you will see 144Gb disks at HITACHI so 48x144Gb...
Now moving physically an array from one cab to another seems a bit silly, when to move data from one subsystem to another can be achieved by remotecopy, I know that the support (HDS anyway) here in Switzerland, do this sort of manip for clients who dont have the licence because they dont have the use of it except when migrating...
Check with your support!

Good luck
Victor

Re: Mission impossible? - xp256 data survival

As I know,Remote Copy is for data migration from a HDS to other HDS with ESCON channel.Hp call it Continuous Access.
As I mentioned before,my assumption is not for real use but for my personal curiosity.
Because I heard the case of all the missing array group which had been upgraded being recovered by the upgrade process.HDS engineer said it might be a microcode bug.

Anyway thank you for your kind response.
I hope you may excuse my poor point.

Regards
Dave Wherry
Esteemed Contributor

Re: Mission impossible? - xp256 data survival

This is a good question. I'm not sure that it would be possible. If these were JBOD, say Jamaica disks you can vgexport the volume group. Physically move them and then vgimport them. It works very well.
On an XP or HDS, the array group would have to be de-installed. Then you can physically move them. The problem I think would be in installing them into another XP or HDS. The installation procedure formats the drives into their selected emulation type. I think you would lose all of the data.

Victor, did you hear any rough dates on when the larger drives would be available? About a year ago HP engineers told me that 73GB drives might be available in April or May of this past year. I just got them 2 weeks ago. A little overdue. I have room for 3 more array groups. I'd like to save them for the larger drives.
Victor BERRIDGE
Honored Contributor

Re: Mission impossible? - xp256 data survival

Hi Dave,
Happy new year!

I heard 144 Gb will not be supported on HDS7700E cabs...They should be out this summer...I heard of them in november when we had to choose between a 7700E a ESS(IBM), and a 9910 (before the official announcement). I dont know what HP will do about the large disks though...

Next time I see someone from HDS I will ask for you!

Best regards
Victor
Dave Wherry
Esteemed Contributor

Re: Mission impossible? - xp256 data survival

Thanks very much Victor. I want to try and hold of on filling up my R1 cabinet. It will be difficult to get the money for R2 or L1.

Dave
Steven Sim Kok Leong
Honored Contributor

Re: Mission impossible? - xp256 data survival

Hi,

When we were looking at shifting the data across RAID groups from XP256 to Hitachi 9910, Hitachi suggested Remote Copy as the solution. As far as I am aware, it is the cleaniest and easiest solution to transfer data between alike boxes.

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim
Brainbench MVP for Unix Admin
http;//www.brainbench.com
Patrick Gorman
Advisor

Re: Mission impossible? - xp256 data survival

Continuous Access is the way to migrate data from one XP to another. Migrating from an XP to a Hitatchi? Should (emphasis on 'should') work.

There is no way to "export" physical disks on an XP to physically move them to another system. Dave Wherry is correct, the XP will format them upon installation.

An alternative might be;

have both the XP source and the Destination system (Hitachi, EMC, whatever) mounted on the same host and do a pvmove. Not that this is an ideal method, it obviously isn't but asside from having to have the I/O bandwidth and CPU time to move the data you don't have to have the Continuous Access ESCON or licenses.
We are what we repeatedly do, Excellence therefore is not an act but a habit - Aristotle