MSA1500 Spare disk and Secure Path Windows

[Davide Depaoli_3]

Hello,
last friday I have installed my first MSA1500 + Secure Path.

customer asked to me if is possibile to have a spare disk for the entire array, but I think not: spare disk is related to a single raidset created on MSA. Is it correct ?

Second question: to try if Secure Path was working, I've disconnected one fibre cable from the server, but the second link didn't started.
During the SP installation the only question was the SP agent password.
After I've typed from spmgr command line following commands:
spmgr -p on WWN HBA_0
spmgr -a on WWN HBA_0

spmgr -p on WWN HBA_1
spmgr -a on WWN HBA_1

Are these commands to activate the failover/failback on Secure Path ?

thanks in advance
kind regards
Davide

[Stephen Kebbell]

Hi Davide,

you can set a spare disk for the entire MSA. If you define a disk as a spare for one array, it can still be chosen as a spare for another array. You have to set a spare for each array, but you can point them all to the same disk, if you want.

For spmgr, you need to use a particular command, e.g. spmgr set -a on [WWNN]. And the WWNN is that of the Storage System itself (e.g. 5000-1FE1-xxxx-xxxx), not the HBAs.
Your syntax has no "set" command.
spmgr set -a on [WWNN] enables auto-restore
spmgr set -p on [WWNN] enables path verification

I assume you already executed "spmgr passwd [password]" before the other commands.

You can also try using the SecurePath Manager graphical interface (installed separately). I find it a bit easier.

Regards,
Stephen

[Davide Depaoli_3]

Hi Stephen
thank you very much, I have the last question:

The spmgr commands are a "one time" commands, or every time the MSA boot is necessary to re-type them ?

thanks again
Davide

[Stephen Kebbell · Accepted solution]

Hi Davide.

they should be one-time commands. You don't need them after every reboot.
For spare disks, it may be a bit different if you are using MSA20 (SATA) enclosures. I have not setup an MSA1500 with SATA yet so I can't be sure. But in ACU it's possible to assign a disk as a spare to more than one array in the MSA. According to HP best practices:
For SCSI enclosures (MSA30) use 1 spare for channels 1 & 2, and one spare for channels 3 & 4
For SATA enclosures, use 1 spare disk per enclosure.

Regards,
Stephen

[Davide Depaoli_3]

thank you very much

regards,
Davide

[Davide Depaoli_3]

thanks