MSA1500/1000 and Active/Active Firmware

[Wiley S McIntyre]

Is it possible to upgrade the controllers on MSA1500/1000 to active/active and connect them to one storageworks san switch 4/32 to provide a redundant path to the sans? I tried searching through the forums for other threads but couldn't find anything specifically addressing this topic.

[IBaltay]

Hi,
here are some docs on the requested upgrade:

HP-UX:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00817593/c00817593.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Linux:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00863886/c00863886.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Windows:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00841968/c00841968.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

I'm not sure I entirely understand your question... If you connect two controllers to a single SAN switch, you're not really going to have a redundant path, as you'll still have a single point of failure.

However it should be possible to zone the switch in such a way to make it appear like two switches. I've certainly done that in the past without any great difficulty...

Cheers,

Rob

[Wiley S McIntyre]

We've had a couple of controller lockups which caused havoc on our network and servers. I'm looking for a way to create multiple paths to each of our sans in case one of the controllers has another lockup.

[marsh_1]

hi,

can you be clearer about how many storage arrays and switches are involved in your storage area networks ?
if this is one san with one switch and one array , then as rob has stated you can have two paths through the same switch which would help if you lose an hba or controller, but is not truly redundant as the single switch is a single point of failure.

hth

[Wiley S McIntyre]

We currently have an MSA1000 and an MSA1500cs each with dual controllers. Both SANs are in active/passive configuration. Only one of the controllers on each SAN is connected to our StorageWorks 4/32 SAN Switch. I left the other controller disconnected until I complete my research on how to make the connections and how to configure the SANs and the fabric switch.

[Greybeard · Accepted solution]

No need to go to A/A in order to do this, just connect the second controller to the SAN switch and check both controllers see the HBAs (type "show connections" at the CLI). Then if a controller fails the other one will take over, that's what a 'Standby' controller does ;-)

[Wiley S McIntyre]

Now where should I type "show connections", on the CLI of the controller on the SAN or on the CLI for the fabric?

[IBaltay]

Hi,
here is the HP StorageWorks
1000/1500 Modular Smart Array Command Line
Interface user guide, show connection is one of the MSA CLI commands:
http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01183955/c01183955.pdf

[Uwe Zessin]

You type "show connections" on the CLI of the MSA controller module. Note that is is necessary to give the connection a proper name and assign the correct operating system profile (the MSA does not know what a file system is, but the profile tells the MSA how to properly communicate with the operating system.

And do not forget that the operating system must be able or taught how to properly do multipathing. Depending on the OS type (I don't think you have mentioned it, yet) you need different solutions.