Disk Enclosures
1748280 Members
3959 Online
108761 Solutions
New Discussion юеВ

Re: setup VA7400 as JBOD

 
SOLVED
Go to solution
Wei Huey
New Member

setup VA7400 as JBOD

We bought a VA7400 and would like to use it as JBOD (not my idea). It is currently configured as an Entry Level Non-Cluster with Path Redundancy. Does anyone know how I can maintain the path redundancy and use this as JBOD?

Or... even a compromise, anyone know where I can find the documentation needed to create raid groups on particular disks on the VA? I do not seem to be searching the ITRC or docs.hp.com for the correct phrases.

Thanks in advance.
8 REPLIES 8
Michael Schulte zur Sur
Honored Contributor

Re: setup VA7400 as JBOD

Hi,

look here in the user and service guide:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual&locale=en_US&docIndexId=179911&taskId=101&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=89018

I would think, that path redundancy has nothing to do with how the disks are organized.

Michael
hyun-seok kim
Frequent Advisor

Re: setup VA7400 as JBOD

You can't use va7400 like JBOD becase this is array and only support RAID1/0 or AutoRAID

path redundancy is not considerable things.
UNIX for all
Karthik S S
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: setup VA7400 as JBOD

It is not possible to use this as a JBOD. The best bet is to go for AutoRAID (considerably less space is dedicated to redundancy as compared to RAID1+0).

As far as the path redundancy is concerned make sure that the disks are spread across different RAID groups (RG1 and RG2).

VA74xx enclosure can accomadate a toltal of 15 disks in the following manner.

Slot 1 to Slot 15 = 15 disks
Raid Group 1 = Slot 1 to Slot 8
Raid Group 2 = Slot 9 to Slot 15


-Karthik S S
For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three. - Alice Kahn
Michael Schulte zur Sur
Honored Contributor

Re: setup VA7400 as JBOD

Oops,

I mistook the description jbod in the manual for the VA7400 as indication, that it would support jbod. How many enclosures do you have? It still puzzles me, why it would not support that? Anyway I have been looking for some time to look for the software to programme it. What is used for that?

Michael
Wei Huey
New Member

Re: setup VA7400 as JBOD

We have a sole VA7400 attached to a rp7410. I was fairly confident that it would not be JBOD'able. The server is used for a QAD/Progress database, which I'm told is very spindle intensive hence the desire to control which physical disk contains what data.

I mentioned the cabling configuration since we were able to cripple the AutoRAID 12H on a different server by keeping it on a single SCSI chain. Wasn't sure if it was relevant with fibre.

Karthik, thanks for the pointer. I had it set up as RAID 0+1 and it does indeed take up more space than AutoRAID. The Virtual Array user and service guide (A6183-96005) I have indicates that RG1 = odd slots, RG2 = even slots. I am at firmware HP18. Is my information obsoleted?

Thanks for everyone's help so far.
Ricardo Rocha
Valued Contributor

Re: setup VA7400 as JBOD

Hi

You're right about the numbering: rg1 -odd, rg2 -even.

You cannot use it as a JBOD.
For best performance I suggest:

For each VG, create a even number of Luns (half on rg1, the other half on rg2). Make sure that the primary link for the luns in rg1 goes through controller1 and rg2 goes through controller2. If not, use pvchange.

When creating the lvols, use the distributed option (-D y), for that you'll have to configure PVG (/etc/lvmpvg). All this is explained in man pages.

This way you'll have your I/O spreaded on your HBA's, switches and controllers.

Good luck,

Ricardo
"there is this old man who spent so much of his life sleeping that he is able to keep awake for the rest of his years"
Karthik S S
Honored Contributor

Re: setup VA7400 as JBOD

Wei,

Sorry for misleading you and you are right about RG1 and RG2 slot numbering. By the way, the current firmware for the Array is HP19 and for the disks are

18GB Disks - HP10.
36GB disks - HP12.

-Karthik S S
For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three. - Alice Kahn
ketan_5
Valued Contributor

Re: setup VA7400 as JBOD

Yes...you can do it but before doing that pls update your controller firmware to HP19 and update to all latest disks firmware. In addition to that of you are using 2405 also update LCC firmware.

For path redundancy you need to mirror it , do not use autoraid or define LUN... so that u can identify every device.