Faulty Controller replacement on EVA 3000

[Kites BM]

Hi,

We 've EVA 3000 with a faulty controller and there was battery fault. HP tried replacing battery and found that the battery couldn't recharge after replacement.

Now HP suggested that the controller will need to be replaced as battery replacements(twice) have been unsuccessful.

VCS being 3.028 running on the controllers. Now HP says that any new controller has VCS running at 3.110

I'm not sure how things are going to work while performing controller replacement.

Few things that I like to know are:

*What will be the impact on the (windows)servers connected to EVA?

*How to identify if the servers connected are dual path or single path?

*What happens when the new controller is replaced? Do dual path devices only connect to it once the controller(with VCS 3.110 after replacement)has regressed to VCS 3.028 and its firmware version to that of the working controller? Will the servers need to rescan for the new device as the WWN after controller replacement may change?

* Please mention any steps planned for Faluty controller replacement

Many Thanks in Advance

Kites

[Víctor Cespón]

VSC 3028 has been obsolete for years, you should already been running 3110

*What will be the impact on the (windows)servers connected to EVA?

If you finally update to 3110, you must make sure that the HBAs on the servers have firmware and drivers updated so they are compatible with 3110.

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01052498/c01052498.pdf
http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01656193/c01656193.pdf

*How to identify if the servers connected are dual path or single path?

Usually the servers connected to an EVA have two HBAs, connectd to two fabrics, so there's 4 paths to the EVA. You need the server to have a path to both controllers so you can replace the controller online

*What happens when the new controller is replaced?
The remaining controller will became master, then downgrade the firmware on the spare controller to 3028.
The Windows servers will not notice any difference

[Kites BM]

Thanks,

further Please mention steps that can be planned for Faluty controller replacement.

Also what would be the Estimated time for its replacement to happen?

[Víctor Cespón]

Controller replacement involves just shutting down the controller, disconnect all cables, replace it by the new one and reconnect the cables exactly as they were.
All vdisks will transition to the other controller, so the access to the data is not interrupted.
The operation can take 20-30 minutes, as you have to be careful while disconnecting cables and removing/inserting a controller.

[Kites BM]

*How to identify if the servers connected are dual path or single path?

Usually the servers connected to an EVA have two HBAs, connectd to two fabrics, so there's 4 paths to the EVA. You need the server to have a path to both controllers so you can replace the controller online

Further to this discussion

I found that there are 2 switches (not interconnected) have connections going to each of the servers in SAN environment.one port on each switch connects to the same server in SAN

Just need clarification.
We have Windows servers with securepath 4.0c.sp2.1 version installed.
Does that mean the servers in SAN have dual path?

[Víctor Cespón · Accepted solution]

Yes, this is the usual configuration. Two switches and each server and EVA controller connected to both switches. This way if a HBA, cable, switch or controller fails, there's still a path available.

Securepath is the software that takes care of presenting a single disk to Windows wwhen there are multiple paths to the disk.

[Kites BM]

We noticed that all Vdisk are managed by controller A and also have preference mostly for Controller A.

Is it okay if we replace Controller (faulty) B without bringing down the servers or seeking an outage window?

After Controller B is replaced its WWN changes so what changes are to be reflected on switch (zoning) end?

thanks,

[Torsten.]

Most replacement controllers for different models I have seen came without the flash card, so you need to transfer the card anyway. If this card is transferred, all settings and firmware will remain the same.

[Uwe Zessin]

> ...without bringing down the servers or seeking an outage window?

If the servers access the virtual disks through Controller A, too, then that is no problem.

> After Controller B is replaced its WWN changes

Well, EVA controllers do not really have a front-end WWN burned in (if you start one without access to any disks or the disks contain no meta data, it will ask for a WWN and checksum).
The new Controller will learn the old WWN, so there is no need to change zoning.


The active controller (A) should even be able to send its firmware to the replacement controller if its version does not match (at least it worked that way on an EVA-5000).