HP P2000 G3 MSA and P2000 shelf enclosure -- what upgrades required for vSphere 5.5/6.0??

[Tom Lyczko]

The subject line says what we have for storage, with LFF SAS drives in them.

So far as I can see with only a little bit of research, the P2000 G3 may not be 'compatible' or 'supported' by VMware for versions 5.5 and beyond.

We are still on vSphere 5.0 U3...which goes EOL next year...I am trying to prepare...

Our P2000 G3 controllers' 'box' that contains the P2000 G3 controllers is an old MSA 2012i box -- can this box have the P2000 G3 controllers removed and MSA 2040 or MSA 1xxx controllers installed??

What about the P2000 shelf enclosure -- must that be changed etc. for vSphere compatibility or only the controllers??

I have a document from HP that I found a long time ago about upgrading P2000 G3 to MSA 2040...

Does anyone on this forum have experience on this topic to share??

Thank you, Tom

[Torsten.]

AFAIK you can upgrade a P2000 chassis with MSA2040 controllers, but you won't have full speed. You cannot upgrade MSA2000 G2 to G4.

[Tom Lyczko]

It would be limited to 3 GB SAS on the MSA controllers, correct?? (regardless what SAS disks are installed)

Do you know if installing the MSA 2040 controllers would enable using SSD or SATA drives??
We don't need to do this, I am just curious.

IIRC the shelf already is 6 GB SAS but it's also 'limited' by the older box.

Thank you, Tom

[Torsten.]

SSD are possible, check for "msa2040 quickspec".

With GL200 firmware the array has some nice new features too - check it out!

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/disk-storage/product-detail.html?oid=5386548

MSA 2040 Advanced Virtualization functionality includes: Thin Provisioning, SSD Read Cache, Automated Tiering: Archive (std) and Performance (paid opt), Redirect on Write Snapshots and Wide Striping.

[Tom Lyczko]

We have P2000 G3 controllers, not G2.

I'll ask HP about the part numbers and 3 GB SAS vs. 6 GB SAS, and what' s involved with the shelf.

Thank you, Tom

[Torsten.]

>> Our P2000 G3 controllers' 'box' that contains the P2000 G3 controllers is an old MSA 2012i box

2012i is even G1, right?

ADDED:

google this:

Technical white paper   

Upgrading to the HP MSA 1040  
or HP MSA 2040

[Tom Lyczko]

G1s were swapped out for G3s in early 2012, the enclosure the controllers go into is the original MSA 2012i box.

Dot Hill makes it, HP resells it.

Need to determine whether to replace controllers or get MSA 1040 vs. 2040, don't need any complicated SAN stuff, just need it to work with the least intervention possible, which the current SAN does very well except when a disk dies and I must call HP to replace it.

Thank you, Tom

[Torsten.]

As said, you can only upgrade a P2000 chassis, see attachment.

[Tom Lyczko]

Hmmm...I'll double-check with HP.

The LFF drives and the shelf should be reusable though.

Thank you, Tom

[Aussie_Steve]

Just a heads up for you. We are running a C8R15A MSA2040 with the latest J9F42A 12G SAS interface 600Gb 15k 2.5" SFF drives which the HP blurb keeps refering to the 2040 "supporting new 12G SAS drives" and in so far as them working, that part is correct as they are running in the SAN, however despite the drives being rated as having a 12G interface, the 2040 shows the "Transfer rate" as being 6.0 not 12.0 so even though the "support' maybe there, it doesn't translate to running at the faster interface speed and yes the entire array only has one model drive installed, i.e. all the drives are the exact same model so it's not a case of 12's and 6's being mixed and the bus slowed to the lowest speed drive... all 24 drives have the same 12Gb interface and that's with bundle code version GL200P002 / controller version GLS200R12-01 firmware so upgrading part of the box may not give you all the performance gains you expect. The fact the claim to support may be given, supporting it doesn't equate to that functionality being exploited to the max. You may be better forgetting an upgrade and just jumping to a whole new box even though that may not be within your budgetary allowances.