VA7100 -- Basic setup questions for MPE

[John MacLerran]

Dear Forum Members,

We have a 4-way HPe3000 N4000 box that currently has two Nike Mod 20 arrays attached to it. Those arrays go off HP support at the end of June '04, so we're considering replacing them with a single VA7100 array. I have a couple of basic setup questions about the array that I'd really appreciate some insight on. We will be upgrading to MPE/iX 7.5 PowerPatch 1 before attempting to install the array, as that's what's recommended in the 7.5 communicator. My questions are:

1. The array we're considering has dual controllers with 1024K cache each. We're considering getting two PCI FC adapter cards for the N4000 box, but I'm not sure if MPE can fail over properly --i.e. if one controller in the array fails, will MPE automatically fail over to the second controller attached to a second adapter card? Or, would we need to reattach the FC cable from the adapter card in the e3000 to the good controller? (I'm trying to figure out if we need two adapters in the e3000 or not.)

2. How to connect to the array to configure it? I've read (elsewhere on this forum), that CommandView 1.06 (?version?) can access and configure the array through the serial port. Is my understanding correct? If so, what can be at the other end of that serial cable... can it be a dumb terminal, or should it be HP-UX or Windows? Does it need to be dedicated, like a console, or can it be used for other things?

3. We intend to get nine 36GB disks (15kRPM). I would like to configure them at RAID 1+0, for performance reasons, but was wondering about optimal LUN size and number. We currently have 13 LUNs spread across both Nike Mod 20, so I'm trying to puzzle out whether we should increase or decrease the number of LUNS, and how/whether that would impact performance.

I'd appreciate any insight on the above, plus any recommendations as to where to start reading.

Thanks!