Help me (va7400)

[zhe song_2]

data loss:

va7400+HP FC 1GB/2GB Switch 16B (A7340A)
Dell PC server + win 2k
Qlogic ql2300
Sanergy software

two lun 0 for reduncity group 1
lun 1 for reduncity group 2
from win2k we can find two disks

custome said data loss(it is true)
they said they do nothing
VA7400 run normal(from vfp log and armdsp -a)

what's some possible cause.

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Hello Zhe,
it's difficult to tell about causes of the customer's disaster. If SAN is correctly installed and set-up, there're no HW errors showed in VA logs and brocade supportshow and system event log of server(s) is clear so it could be software problem - for example, database crashed terminated abnormally w/o cache data flush or host port behavior was set-up incorrectly (VA shipped with HPUX host behavior, so it should be changed manually).

Please check SAN set-up. The optimal set-up in your configuration is to have everything in fabric.
- Set-up QLA2300 drivers to work in fabric (driver should be >= 7.05.05, 8.1.3);
- set-up VA to work in fabric (host port topology, "armmgr -y");
- check that you have default port behavior for w2k ("armmgr -B"). If you have other hosts with different OSes sharing this VA port behavior table should be set-up;
- check if VA's firmware is up to date (at least HP16, with battery firmware=4.3);
- after doing all these steps gather supportshow from brocade and make sure all connected ports are "N" port (no "NL" ports in the list). Switch should not be in quickloop mode ("qldisable");
- check if LUN 0 has size at least 10MB, has "WC" access in security table (if security enabled), and there're no user data on it (recommended);
- if host has 2 or more FC HBAs HP Autopath should be installed;
- if there are 2 or more w2k hosts not in cluster mode security should be enabled and security table designed to deny access to same LUNs from different hosts (different OSes);
- check if customer has "normal perfomance" policy (recommended). In this mode VA writes maps to the disks each 4 seconds. If customer will set-up VA in "high perfomance" mode VA will flush maps to disks only on correct shutdown;
- customer should be able (trained) to get logs from VA and monitor them - checking for "bad" and "suspicious" events and call HP if needed. All information should be on CD-ROM disks provided with VA (or in hardcopy version) or can be downloaded from HP web-sites.

Here's brief overview. If you have complex SAN configuration (heterogeneous, tapes in the SAN, etc) good idea to ask HP to set it up.
Good luck!

BR, Eugeny