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EVA/MSA Common Server Access

 
willsmith1701
New Member

EVA/MSA Common Server Access

We have an MSA1500cs in an active passive configuration. We recently purchased an EVA 4000. We plan to build a Vmware ESX 3.0 server farm, and would like to have the servers access both sans concurrently with multipath capability. Is this possible? Page 166 of the san design reference guide refers to this as "common server access" but then refers to "the storage solution documentation" for specifics. I can't find this information in either the MSA or the EVA docs. It seems we might be able to do this if we convert the MSA to an active/active configuration and then dedicate specific dual headed hba's to one san or the other, but it would help to see specific documentation outlining this. Can anyone point to specific doc links on this, or is anyone running a similar setup in production?
1 REPLY 1
Rob Leadbeater
Honored Contributor

Re: EVA/MSA Common Server Access

Hi,

I don't see why this shouldn't be possible, although I've never tried.

It looks like you might have an old version of the SAN Design Reference Guide. Take a look at pages 174 and 175 of the latest edition (36th) here:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00403562/c00403562.pdf

This seems to suggest that you can access both the MSA and the EVA at the same time, with ESX's native multipathing, on a single HBA.

You should however make sure that your zones are configured correctly. For example your ESX servers and the MSA in one zone, and the ESX server and the EVA in another.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Rob