MSA 1000 Basic Questions

[Vinit]

HiFolks,
I am new to the SAN arena. We recently bought an MSA 1000 with 2 expansion boxes & here is my question:
1. Can I configure so that 28 (14+14) drives form a single RAID with 1 online Spare?
2. From the RAID configures can I create 4 Logical Drives?
3. From the Logical drives configured, can I allocate (using SSP) Logical Drive 1 to Server 1, Logical drive 2 to server 2 & so on?
I don't want to make 4 RAIDS because I want to utilise all drives (except 1) for data.

Thanks in advance.
Vinit

[dentistcorn]

Configuring 28 drives with one spare is not a wise decision.

[CA881013]

HP recommends no more then 14 drives in a RAID 5 to lower the chance of a logical drive failure. However you could assign all 28 assuming you are not violating any maximum size rules in the ACU. SSP will allow you to present each logical drive to a different server (by denying each of the other access)As for having 28 drives with only 1 online spare I wouldn't worry too much as long as the unit is monitored regularly (via insight manager the like) so that a failed drive can be replaced asap. On the larger array's (XP class) the ratio is more like 31 to 1, drives to spares.