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Re: Want to Add ^ news Disk Shelves to existing 2C6D EVA 8000

 
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Himanshu
Occasional Advisor

Want to Add ^ news Disk Shelves to existing 2C6D EVA 8000

Hi All ,

I have EVA 8000 in production.It is running in very stable state and it is in live production. I have ordered 6 new disk Enclosures and 60 more drives. This will make this EVA 2C12D. Does anybody has experience with this situation ? I can not shut down EVA. Can I do this on live or I will have absolutely shut it down anyways. And also how should I deal with maintaing good RSS state. ? as I am putting 60 more drives. Do you have any white paper or document detailing this scenario..Please help me...Any suggestion is apperciated..

Thanks

Hgor
8 REPLIES 8
Uwe Zessin
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: Want to Add ^ news Disk Shelves to existing 2C6D EVA 8000

You can upgrade the EVA8000 while it is operational although HP suggests not to do this during peak hours. It is described in the manual "HP StorageWorks EVA 4000/6000/8000 M5314 drive enclosure installation instructions" (5697-5436, October 2005).

Playing with the RSS state is kind of 'black art'. So far I have not found any helpful hints in the official product documentation. As long as you only use VRAID-1 virtual disks, you are fine with an RSS state of "mirrored".

In case you use VRAID-5 Vdisks and you want to obtain a "parity" state, I am afraid you have to physically move disk drives around as the controller firmware does not have that functionality and I doubt that group/ungroup operations will help.

The usual way to deal with such a situation is to:
- plan the new physical layout
- ensure a full backup has been made
- shutdown the array
- move the disk drives
- power up again
- verify the array

It is also possible to increase the disk failure timeout and move single drives while the array is operating, but this will cause many errors and, I think, not 'supported' by HP.
.
Himanshu
Occasional Advisor

Re: Want to Add ^ news Disk Shelves to existing 2C6D EVA 8000

again ,

you suggested in steps to power down .and then in last power up again. Is it absolutely required to power down? I mean Can I achieve my needs without powering down? And What if I will include all new drives in the old default Disk Group where I have all previous drives ? Willl it reallocate all the data in a proper RSS pattern automatically across all 12 shelves or not ? And also if I will put all new drives in NEW Disk Group what will be the outcome ?
Steven Clementi
Honored Contributor

Re: Want to Add ^ news Disk Shelves to existing 2C6D EVA 8000

As stated, it IS possible to do this while the EVA is operational. It is suggested by HP to proceed this way only during a non-peak (minimal i/o) period like 3am (usually).

The only think you will not be able to do easily is move your disks arounds. Shutting the EVA down allows you to move the old disks so that your existing RSS's are spread across the new shelves as well, not just the old ones.

You can easily include the new drives into the existing Disk Group, but they will just be added to the mix, the controllers will not automatically move older rss members to new disks and move data appropiately.

In a new group, you will be limited to those 6 shelves, unless you have some extra drive slots to utilize on the original 6 shelves.


To "hot" add the shelves...

1. Install the shelves into the rack, wire them up but do NOT plug them into the fibre loop switches.
2. Popluate with drives while NOT connected to the backend.
3. When ready, connect one shelf at a time, checking in Command View that everything comes up fine. Waita few minutes before connecting the next shelf.

Alternative method...

1. Install all shelves like above.
2. Plug them into the backend, one at a time, checking CV for problems.
3. Install drives... 1 at a time, waiting 60 to 90 seconds or more between each drive insertion.
4. Once all done, check CV for new hardware/drives.

Adding the new disks into the 6 new shelves "should" allow you to keep your current rss state, which should be "mirrored".


Steven
Steven Clementi
HP Master ASE, Storage, Servers, and Clustering
MCSE (NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3)
VCP (ESX2, Vi3, vSphere4, vSphere5, vSphere 6.x)
RHCE
NPP3 (Nutanix Platform Professional)
Himanshu
Occasional Advisor

Re: Want to Add ^ news Disk Shelves to existing 2C6D EVA 8000

Thanks Steven ,

As you told in last alternate method , adding one drive and waiting like 2 mnts before you put second , will fix my problem ? I mean my current RSS state will re distribute across new 6 selves also ? OR onlt the new drive will get even distribution but RSS for old drives will still remain in orginal 6 shelves ??
Steven Clementi
Honored Contributor

Re: Want to Add ^ news Disk Shelves to existing 2C6D EVA 8000

1st, the reason for inserting the drives one at a time and waiting 60-90 seconds is not for rss, but so that there are not too many loop inturruptions which would otherwise potentially cause other issues with current i/o operations and potential failure(s).

2nd, unless you manually move existing disks, the controllers will NOT swap ezisting rss members to the new shelves. Your new disks WILL be properly distributed for rss purposes though.

So yes... Current RSS will remain the same and the new disks will be distributed as best possible.


The only instance where an existing RSS MAY get re-distributed is if there is an "off" number of disks. If you have a RSS with 6 or 7 or 9, 10 or 11 disks... adding disks to the Disk group may force it to split and possible utilize the new shelves. Only this one RSS set will do this.


Steven
Steven Clementi
HP Master ASE, Storage, Servers, and Clustering
MCSE (NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3)
VCP (ESX2, Vi3, vSphere4, vSphere5, vSphere 6.x)
RHCE
NPP3 (Nutanix Platform Professional)
Nigel Poulton
Respected Contributor

Re: Want to Add ^ news Disk Shelves to existing 2C6D EVA 8000

Just a thought...... You say you are adding 60 new drives. It is recommended best practice to add drives in multiples of 8 for better RSS configuration. It might be a better to install either 64 or 56 drives as this will give you an optimal RSS conifguration.

mackem
Talk about the XP and EVA @ http://blog.nigelpoulton.com
Himanshu
Occasional Advisor

Re: Want to Add ^ news Disk Shelves to existing 2C6D EVA 8000

Hi ,

Sure that would be better . But anyways unless and untill I will move my existing drives , physically over new sheleves , I am not gonna get optimal RSS anyways...am I right ?
Nigel Poulton
Respected Contributor

Re: Want to Add ^ news Disk Shelves to existing 2C6D EVA 8000

You will only get optimal RSS configuration within a Disk Group if the number of disks in that group is a multiple of 8.
Talk about the XP and EVA @ http://blog.nigelpoulton.com