HP P2000 Uptime Expectations (Firmware updates and adding drive shelves)

[collinKC]

My management is looking to lower the cost per TB for our shared storage offerings.  We currently own an EVA4400.  I am looking to procure lower tiered storage.  Something like a HP P2000fc.  I don't have high expectations for this unit and I am making the assumption that this is an entry level array.   What I am trying to find out is if I can perform online firmware upgrades and online shelf additions if I were to do them in the middle of the night when the array is processing very little I/O.  From my reading,  this array is marketed as Active/Active but when I look at the FAQ, I see this:

Q2.         What does dual "Active/Active" controllers mean?

A2.         It means both controllers are ready to process I/Os and provide redundancy. If a controller fails. the second controller can handle the I/O requests until the failed controller is brought back online.

Therefore, I assume that LUNs are presented out of Controller A and Controller B sits passive with a copy of Controller A's configuration so if controller A goes down, Controller B takes over.   During a firmware update process, if we were to upgrade the firmware on controller A, does that mean there would be some downtime for the P2000 to switchover I/O from controller A to controller B.  Question #2 is, can drive shelves be added online?  When I use the term "online", would a SQL cluster connected to this unit still be able to serve out databases.

[tricktracktruck]

If you have a two controller unit you can update firmware without interruption.

You update one of the two controllers and after that fw is transferred to the other

controller automatically (partner update). Only thing worth mentioning is that during

fw updated of one controller it's owned virtual disks are driven by the other controller

and so access does not happen via optimized path during this time.

[Roberto Fabretti]

Except that for DISk firmware update you have to put the unit offline.

[Joshua Small_2]

We have a G1, which based on the generation has been running several years.
We've had one unplanned outage ever (power) and two scheduled. Both scheduled outages were to add shelves, which cannot be added to the G1 live.

We haven't done disk firmware updates except when adding new disks, based on Roberto's point. I've never had an issue with that, except when a disk fails and it's difficult to get it replaced with an old FW.

We've done several controller updates without outage.

[Torsten.]

Array controller firmware updates can be done online, but for disk firmware updates it is recommended to stop any activity - this is an offline update.


Regarding active/active:

Each controller can own vdisks (diskgroups in EVA terms), so both are working at the same time. If one fails, the other take the ownership of these vdisks.