new installation MSA1500cs; msa30

[Mtran]

Hi all,

I've worked with SAN before (like Xiotech 3D) and Brocade director class switches (48K) but know nothing about HP SAN. The IT dep. had recently bought the following:

MSA1500 cs with dual controllers
2 switches 4/16 (Brocade 200E I think)
2 storage enclosers msa30 fully populated
6 servers with dual HBAs in each (2 linux, 2 MS, and 2 Novell Netware) will be connected to this SAN.

Requirements: A/A for controllers, multipathing for all hosts. 2 Novell servers will be clustered using NCS. Microsoft severs may need to boot from SAN. all others will boot from local drive.

The whole shipment came with everything rackmounted (ie,2 4/16 swithes,msa1500cs with both controller installed ,2 msa30 enclosers, and servers).

questions:
1. how to boot from SAN? or even supported?
2. which controller fw to use to convert to A/A mode (linux, windows or Netware)?
3. need to install ACU on every hosts or just one?
4. since mutipathing will be used for redundancy, do I need to lun mask each lun to both path on the same host in order to failover properly?

any tips on how to set this all up would be appreciated.

Minh

[John Kufrovich]

Hello Minh,

1). Yes BFS is supported. I would recommend looking through the BFS papers located here.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual&locale=en_US&docIndexId=179911&taskId=101&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=377751

2). Use 7.00 FW on your controllers for A/A support.

3). At min, you only need to install ACU on one server that has access to the MSA.

4) When you run ACU, select Selective Storage Presentation and assign LUNs to the appropriate Servers. Make sure you set the the correct HOST OS profile.

jk

[Mtran]

Hi John,

thanks for getting back so quickly.

1. will definitely take a look at this doc about BFS.

2. since a single MSA will be supporting all my MS, Linux, and Netware servers. From which download link (ms, linux, or netware) do I select the fw file to download? please clarify.

one additional question. noticed a message display on the front of one of the ctrl that said cache disable. How do I enable it? through ACU?

thanks,

Minh

[John Kufrovich]

Using MS to flash the MSA FW is the easiest. You could use the MSA cli.

There are 2 or 3 instances that the cache is disabled.

1). No LUNs created.
2). Batteries not charged.
3). ACU is running or you are attempting to make a configuration change. We disable the cache to allow the data to write through.

jk

[Mtran]

Hi John,

thanks for all your help. Now it's time for me to get busy. May come back with additional questions later.

Kind regards,

Minh

[John Kufrovich]

You are more than welcome.

Don't hesitate to ask any questions.

Regards
jk

[Mtran]

Hi all,

Since this is a spanking new msa system, there are no hosts available to do controller fw update to A/A mode. I would like to use MSA CLI (out of band) method to do the fw update by connecting my laptop to the MSA using the provided serial cable and issue the "download firmware offline".

Could someone please point me to the lastest and correct controller fw file that I need to download from HP website?

thank you much.

Minh

[John Kufrovich · Accepted solution]

Minh,

Go here,
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?taskID=135&pnameOID=415600&prodTypeId=12169&locale=en_US〈=English+%28US%29&prodSeriesId=415598

Then go the HPUX. There you will find the MSA 7.00 FW files. Extract the MSA700b1500.bin file.
Attach your CLI cable to the right controller, you may or may not want to increase the baud rate.
To increase the baud rate from 19200 to 57600
set this_controller terminal_speed 57600

You will then have to change to the new baud in hyperterm. You don't have to change the baud, it just shortens the time to flash by a few minutes.

On my previous pointer to the whitepapers, there is a paper on flashing the controllers.

jk

[Mtran]

Hi John,

I would never be able to figure out the one under HP-UX is what I should use. Thanks again for your expertise on this.

Minh

[John Kufrovich]

I know. Hopefully soon, we will have a refresh of the MSA FW download pages.

jk