steps on connecting new purchase msa2050 disk enclosure to existing msa2040 controller enclosure

[thomastse]

Dear all,

we purchased a new msa2050 disk enclosure for connecting existing msa2040 controller enclosure. we wish to connect it online without any downtime but I wish to confirm steps written is correct . The following is my draft on it:

1. rack disk enclosure

2. make sure all disks for msa2050 are inserted

3. power on disk enclosure

4. wait until power on cycle for msa2050 is completed ( 10 mins)

5. plug SAS cables to existing msa2040 controller one by one

6. use GUI to confirm all disks in msa2050 are regconized correctly

Please help to comment, thanks in advance.

Thomas

[Fiberfish]

Hi,

I understand you are trying to add one new MSA 2050 enclosure to existing MSA 2040 Controller enclosure and there is not no additional disk enclosure existing at present , only the controller enclosure.

I will suggest , it will be prudent to plan a downt time to add a new disk enclosure.

a) Plan a downtime Windown.

b) Shutdown both the controllers on MSA 2040 using CLI or GUI of the array.

c) Ensure, the new enclosure is Racked below the controller enclosure .

D) While MSA 2050 enclosure is powered off, Connect the SAS cable to the controller enclosure.

e) Ensure, all the disk on the new enclosure is properly seated , Power on the MSA 2050 Enclosure.

f) Wait for all the disk to show Green LED.

g) Now, Controllers to be turned on,  this can be done by removing power cables from controller enclosure and re-inserting it. ( Note : We have turned off both controller earlier ).

h) Now, you after few minutes , you can login in GUI interface and use new disks for creating disk groups.

[thomastse]

Hi FiberFish,

Thanks for your reply. Since it is very difficult to get downtime and I suppose it is easy to add expansion online if procedures are correct.

i found that following document: (for MSA 2050, but I thnik it can be applied on MSA 2040)

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-a00022337en_us&docLocale=en_US#N1004A

section "Hot-adding disk enclosures sections" > "Extending the straight-through cabling configuration" can be referenced for adding new disk enclosure.

Moreover, is there any firmware compaibility issues needed to consider?

Thomas

[Fiberfish]

Hi Thomas,

a) If you have more than one disk enclosure, then comes the choice of using Straight Cabling or Reverse Cabling.

     Reverse Cabling is suggested way, as it allows communication to continue even in case of an disk enclosure failure.

If you have single Disk enclosure , this choice do not comes up , otherwise, Reverse cabling ( Fault Taulrent cabling ) to be preffered .

b) Since, Controllers need to discover the new disk enclosure and associated disks, therefore, my experiance suggest it is good to be done offline.  Since, it is a small activity , a half an hour downtime , may be in out of office hours should be sufficient.

However,  if you want to add it online , you can still do it  and run command " rescan " from the controller if there is any concern around detection of newly added disks or enclosure.  

c) Firmware compatibility is not a concern with addition of MSA 2050 disk enclosure, they can be upgraded even later .

    As you know , it is always advised to be on latest firmware for controllers or enclosures.

Regards

[Shawn_K]

Hello,

As Fiberfish has mentioned there is no firmware incompatability between the enclosure and the controllers. However, you should be at the latest firmware versions. If you need a good resource for firmware please visit the MSA Firmware site which will have all the controller, enclosure, and hard drive firwmare links: https://h41111.www4.hpe.com/storage/msafirmware.html

Cheers,
Shawn

I work for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The comments in this post are my own and do not represent an official reply from HPE. No warranty or guarantees of any kind are expressed in my reply.

[thomastse]

Thanks for both Fiberfish and Shawn comments. It enhances my confidence on doing this task.

[Luca]

Hi Thomas,

    as I'm about to do the same procedure, add the first MSA2050 SFF enclosure to a MSA 2040 SFF and would like to proceed doing it by hot adding it without downtime, I'd like to know if you did it this same way or you stopped one controller at a time then connecting it or just plugged first one channel then the other as suggested by the hp 2050 guide after the enclosure comes online (which is what I am more inclined to follow as this is the first added enclosure hence no possible interruption of online spanned data).

Thanks!

[Shawn_K]

Hello Luca,

My suggestion is to add the first cable to one of the controllers then plug that cable into the IOM on the disk enclousre. Then plug the second cable into the other controller and then plug that cable into the corresponding IOM on the disk enclsoure. 

I woudl not suggest shutting down a controller to add a cable/IOM. This action takes you to a single point of failure and does not provide any benefit for the addition of the disk enclosure.

Allow the system a few seconds to do the device discovery and then you should be ready to configure your new drives.

Cheers,
Shawn

I work for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The comments in this post are my own and do not represent an official reply from HPE. No warranty or guarantees of any kind are expressed in my reply.

[SUBHAJIT KHANBARMAN_1]

@Luca 

I hope you are referring to "HPE MSA 2050 SAN Storage - Installing the Enclosures",

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-a00022337en_us&docLocale=en_US

Hope this helps!
Regards
Subhajit

I am an HPE employee

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[Luca]

Hello again all and thanks for getting back to me.

@SUBHAJIT KHANBARMAN_1  I am referring to p.45 of the following best practices pdf:

https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00015961enw

This is the documenti I believe @Shawn_K is also referring to for the correct hot add procedure.  Accordingly, I will follow this procedure to hot add the MSA2050 enclosure to the 2040.

Thanks!