Smart Array HBA Cache setting with P408e-p 4Gb Cache (804405-B21) and MSA 2050 SAS (Q1J29A) Array?

[martinco-cae]

Hi,

Struggling to clarify, from the MSA product documentation, how the Smart Array HBA cache needs to be configured (i.e. Disabled/Read Only/etc) for shared volumes presented out of a MSA 2050 SAS array?

Simple 3 server setup (2 VMware ESXi 6.7 hosts and 1 Windows 2016 Veeam host) sharing VMFS 6 volumes from the MSA 2050 SAS.

Any help will be appreciated.

M

[SahanaR]

@martinco-cae 

Hello,

HP Smart array controllers are always configured and managed from the hostswhere the controller is installed and not from Storage like MSA 2050 which just presents volumes.

SmartCache is deployed andmanaged using the HPE Smart Storage Administrator (HPE SSA).

SSA download link for Windows 2016 https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_080941680d974d62934ad11035

SSA download link for ESXI 6.7 https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX-b56a6fbdd4fc473c91f34c080d 

You can use HPE SSA to install the license key and activate SmartCache functionality.

To configure the cache through SSA  check pages 44,45 and 46 on http://itdoc.hitachi.co.jp/manuals/ha8000v/hard/Gen10/SA/882375-002_en.pdf

Hope this helps!

Thanks

[martinco-cae]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply, but I am not talking about "SmartCache".

I want to know if the 4Gb of onboard hardware cache memory on the Smart Array P408e-p is needed/useable for shared volumes being presented out of a MSA2050 SAS?

Thanks

M

[SahanaR]

Hi,

Ok i get it now!.

Is MSA 2050 using this controller?If so then the 4gb cache module on the controller is used and needed.

Thanks

[martinco-cae]

This is an example of what I am talking about:

Each server has a Smart Array P408e-p 4Gb that is dual connected to the MSA2050 SAS (one SA SAS port per MSA2050 SAS controller). The MSA2050 is presenting that same volumes to both servers.

The HPE documentation for MSA2050 SAS based implemetations is poor - lots of unanswered questions.

If you can point me towards any MSA2050 SAS specific configuration documentation that mentions the host server Smart Array SAS HBA configuration I would be very appreciative.

Thanks

M

[martinco-cae · Accepted solution]

Well I can answer my own question now, as I found this in a HPE MSA TekTalk from 2017...

Why is this not clearly called out in the MSA2050 QuickSpec?

[SahanaR]

Hi,
Sorry for the delay in response,as i was out of office.
I reached out to my MSA experts and got more clarification on your query.

Smart Array controllers operate in one of two modes: 1) Smart Array mode, which means it uses its onboard intelligence to aggregate local/directly connected drives into logical disk groups,
or 2) HBA mode, which means the intelligence is within an external system and it acts as an initiator only (though it can still do simple RAID with JBODs). The onboard cache is only used if it own the completion of a write to disk, which it does not if connected to shared storage like the MSA.
So no, the SmartCache is not used, nor is it configurable.

This is more of Smart Array functionality and Smart Array needs to be working in HBA mode in this scenario.Also all this information is documented in Smart array controller guides https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04441382.

Your feedback on including the details on MSA docs is considered and we will work on it.

Apologies for the confusion.

Thanks for being valuable HPE customer