Upgrading P4300 G2 cluster

[AmanaLiving]

Hello

We have a 4 node P4300 G2 SAS Starter SAN (BK716A)  (2 kits)  cluster and we are looking at adding more storage. We requested a quote from our supplier for the above kit but were told it is EOL, which according to documentation I have read is correct.

They have offered us a replacement:

HP StoreVirtual 4330 450GB SAS Storage    HP StoreVirtual 4330 450GB SAS Storage    
    4330 Storage System Hardware:
•    8 SFF SAS drives, 450GB, 6G SAS 10,000 RPM
•    Single CPU - Intel Xeon ZE5-2620 at 2.0 GHz
•    32GB RAM
•    Redundant hot swap power supplies (460W CS Platinum Plus Hot Plug)
•    2GB Flash backed write cache
•    Support for RAID 5, 6, 10
•    Quad port 1Gbit NIC
•    iLO4 Management - iLO Advanced Pack
•    Smart Array Advanced Pack 2.0
What's in the Box:
•    Each sku contains the following major components:
o    One 4330 Storage System with eight 450 GB SFF SAS drives    

The problem I see here is our existing SANs' have 450gig 15k RPM SAS disks, and the new 4330 450 gig 10k RPM disks.
I have reservations about mixing disk speeds in a cluster.  Also would the speed make any difference considering the difference in drive form factor, (3.5 vs 2.5), yes the 2.5's are slower but the seek time should be less because the platters are smaller.

The question is, should we order the EOL version to match our existing nodes, or intergrate the new version into the old cluster?

[ryan_1212]

Start a new cluster with the new models, and gradually phase out the old nodes by live migrating volumes. As you can afford more of the new models, add them to the new cluster to keep growing it as $$ is available. 

[Emilo]

The 'cluster' will always slow down to the lowest common denominator so the new ones will dumb down. The G2 are almost at eol so its just a matter of time before they become obsolete.  If you put them in the same management group you will be "stuck' to what ever level the G2'S can upgrade to. What I mean by that is even you did update the nodes individually the management group always goes down to the lowest common denominator. If you put them in a different cluster you loose the advange of 'scaling' meaning adding more spindles to your current cluster. I guess perfomance wise I would keep them in the same cluster then gradually replace them with the newer models. So with the G2's entering the EOL they will continue to recieve software updates until 4/30/2015 and they will continue to recieve engineering support HW support until 4/30/2018. So you could continue to have HW support for them another 5 years.

[David_Schwartzs]

Part # BK716A was replaced by Part # BK716B (RoHS compliance changes to build materials, no functional changes). BK716B is still available and shipping from HP. If you want to expand your current cluster non-disruptively and maintain a single data pool, that's what I'd recommend.

Otherwise, if you get the newer StoreVirtual appliances, you can start a new cluster, and use PeerMotion to do migrations and federation between the clusters. You just won't be able to manage it as one large pool of data in this instance.

[Prakash Singh_1]

Hi,

For HP Store Virtual 4000 series SAN Solution querries you can also visit the HP Guided troubleshooting tree.

Below is the link for HPGT:

http://h20584.www2.hp.com/hpgt/guides/select?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=4118659&lang=en&cc=us