VA7110

[Hasan_9]

Hello,
I plan to change my VA7110’s disks and use the array for a new plan with new data.However I want to preserve my old data without any lost and use them again if my new plan will be failed. There are two servers connected to this array. I want to order new disks for servers and 15 HDDs for VA7110 and replace all the HDDs. I want to use old HDDs in servers and array whenever I need my old data. I mean I want to shut down the servers and array, remove the new disks, put the old hdds, turn on the servers,disk array and use my old operating systems and services and data whenever I need them.Is it possible or not?Please advice.

[Bernhard Mueller]

Hasan,

don't know if anybody has done that, but it should work if you cleanly shutdown the array, pull all power cords, take out the controller backup batteries so that the controller looses its configuration. After you replace all the disks there will be no maps on any disk found and you have to format the array etc. i.e. setup everything from scratch. If you want to revert to your old config you would have again to shutdown, remove batteries, insert old disks and start the array again. You should note the slots for each disk on the disk itself so that you insert them in the right order and the controller can immediately find the maps on the original disks.

Anyway, you should have a reliable backup as a fallback option.

Regards,
Bernhard

[Hasan_9]

Thank you Bernhard,

Where does VA7110, save the LUN's configuration? Does it write the LUN's information on disk? You talked about disk map in your reply. What is the disk map?
Where does VA save its Raid information? Where does it save LUN's information? Where does it save controller's configuration?
What information does store on its cache?
Please advice.

[Bernhard Mueller]

Hasan,

if you actually plan to do it this way I strongly recommend you do a bit of reading to get familiar with the VA.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual&locale=en_US&docIndexId=179911&taskId=101∏
TypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=89018

Basically the maps hold all the configuration of the array and if the controllers loose the config during a power outage due to a bad battery, the VA is supposed to be able to start by reading the maps (i.e. the configuration) which should be stored on several disks.

start with armdsp -i and admsp -a to display current settings etc.

Regards,
Bernhard

[Torsten.]

Why your are starting 2 threads regarding almost the same question?

Your other thread is here:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=988518

To answer your question:

The LUN configuration is stored in the controllers and on 2 disks. The disks are called map disks. You can find them by running a

armdsp -a array_id

and look for "recovery maps are on this disk".

A better method to access the old data is do a backup and restore the needed data from there.

[Hasan_9]

Thank you Torsten,
I started this treat in HP-UX forums to find out their solution for server side of this plan. However we talked about VA side of the plan in this forum.
Unfortunately, there are some programs that are compiled (from source) for us and installed on disk array and I do not have any access to its source. Also there are some data belong to that program. I cannot delete any thing. I want to buy 15 other disks for my test and use them for test plan and after finishing the test everything have to bring back. (I will put the original HDDs in VA and start the services again).What is your solution? Is it possible or not?

[Thomas J. Harrold · Accepted solution]

If I were in your situation, I'd look into buying a new array, such as an MSA1000. They cost significantly less than the VA (last time I priced), and can give you access to new storage, and keep your existing data online at the same time.

It may be a bit more $$, but the safety of your data may be worth the cost.

-tjh