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on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
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04-28-2010 05:52 AM
04-28-2010 05:52 AM
After getting a 2TB LUN presented to the server (from HP StorageWorks 6400 Enterprise Virtual Array) I issued mediainit commnad on the LUN TWO DAYS AGO and it's still running... Yesterday I used renice to set its nice# to 0 and it seemed not very helpful.
Months ago I did mediainit to a 36GB hard drive on the same server and it took about 40 mintues to finish.
My questions are:
1. Do I have to run mediainit on a new LUN?
2. Is there any way to make mediainit faster?
3. Are there any alternatives to mediainit?
Thanks a lot in advance!
##########################################
$ ssh 172.20.123.221 ps -efl|ioscan -fnkCdisk
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
===========================================================================
disk 6 0/3/1/0.1.18.0.0.0.1 sdisk CLAIMED DEVICE HP HSV400
/dev/dsk/c9t0d1 /dev/rdsk/c9t0d1
##########################################
$ ps -efl|grep mediainit
1 S root 23034 1 0 138 0 5c4d04c0 13 5663c800 Apr 26 ? 0:44 mediainit /dev/rdsk/c9t0d1
Solved! Go to Solution.
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04-28-2010 06:02 AM
04-28-2010 06:02 AM
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
"Most HP hard disks are formatted and exhaustively tested at the factory by use of a process more thorough but also more time-consuming than appropriate for mediainit."
Pete
Pete
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04-28-2010 06:52 AM
04-28-2010 06:52 AM
Solutionmediainit is neither required nor recommended for most modern disks. In fact, mediainit might damage some (semi-)modern disks.
Even the most basic SCSI disks today have a built-in defect management system in the disk firmware/hardware level, so the OS normally sees the disk as having zero defects. The primary purpose of mediainit was to detect and mark as unusable any defective blocks - but if a modern disk with an internal defect management has an OS-visible defective block, it often means the disk is already pretty seriously damaged and should not be used any more.
Modern disks are also low-level formatted at the factory, using more advanced formatting schemes than mediainit can do. For example, the interleave factor is usually variable, based on the distance to the center of the disk platter. It is all handled by the disk's internal electronics.
Some disks may have their performance and/or capacity reduced if their advanced low-level format is overwritten with mediainit's simplistic version: if this happens, only the disk manufacturer's special programs have a chance of fixing it. To protect against this, most modern disks will simply *ignore* any traditional low level formatting commands: the disk will send an appropriate result code to the OS, but might actually do nothing at all.
With external storage systems like Virtual Arrays, *if* any low-level formatting is required, it should be done with the VA administration tools, *not* with mediainit at the host side.
2.) Yes: don't do it. See answer 1.
3.) Yes: don't do it. See answer 1.
MK
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04-28-2010 06:59 AM
04-28-2010 06:59 AM
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
1. No need to run mediainit on a new LUN. I use it to erase a physical disk on occasion.
SEP
Owner of ISN Corporation
http://isnamerica.com
http://hpuxconsulting.com
Sponsor: http://hpux.ws
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hpuxlinux
Founder http://newdatacloud.com
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04-28-2010 09:46 AM
04-28-2010 09:46 AM
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
Absolutely NO.
This is a virtual disk. All error management is done by the array controllers.
Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.
__________________________________________________
There are only 10 types of people in the world -
those who understand binary, and those who don't.
__________________________________________________
No support by private messages. Please ask the forum!
If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!

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04-28-2010 02:25 PM
04-28-2010 02:25 PM
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
I never did understand were this mediainit idea comes from. On HP-UX there is/was never a reason ever, to my knowledge, to execute mediainit on a disk/lun.
Greetz,
Chris
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04-28-2010 05:57 PM
04-28-2010 05:57 PM
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
So mediainint changed from an active test and relocate program to simply a command to initiate the firmware test/relocate inside the disk. But today, very few disks are actually directly attached to large servers like HP-UX. The new Integrity boxes have built-in RAID controllers so HP-UX doesn't really talk to the disks. The data is virtualized so that it appears to be coming from a real disk but behind the SCSI connector is a lot of electronics.
I am surprised that modern disk arrays and controllers even support the medianint commands sent to disks. The word is deprecated for mediainit.
Bill Hassell, sysadmin
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04-29-2010 10:52 AM
04-29-2010 10:52 AM
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
Re: on rp3440/11i v2 "mediainit" takes more than 42 hour for a 2TB LUN!!!???
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