How to backup the EVA 4400 configuration?

[Bowtasdw]

Hi, Where i work we have a EVA 4400, now the configuration of this EVA has never been backed up from what i can tell.

Now i want to flash up the firmware to the latest versions. but before doing this i'd really prefer to do some config backups. plus i'd like to put this practice in place anyway.

Q, we are using web based CV to manage this SAN with no CV server. now i see i can install SSU to do a config backup. but can i just install the latest version of SSU and it will be able to backup my EVA with out the firmware having to be the latest version or will i need to find the version of SSU to match my EVAs firmware?

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hi, 

SSSU comes with Command View.

If you install it on a server, install the same version of CV that you have on the WOCP/management module inside the EVA.

You could also grab a "controller configuration dump" from the CV in the management module.

Like this: 

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=120&prodSeriesId=3900918&prodTypeId=12169&objectID=c02641188&printver=true

[Torsten.]

Start SSSU, select the ABM module as manager and log on.

The do

eva02> capture configuration /eva02_config.txt

This will store the config into the file.

In case of emergency you can use this file to setup the EVA again while running this while from SSSU.

[Bowtasdw]

Does the controller configuration dump outlined in your link grab enough information that allows the system to be restored to a running state? that might be good enough to do before any major changes.

[Bowtasdw]

ok, i did the controller configuration dump from the WBADM CV and it created a tar file with a xml file in it that seems to have recorded all the details of the eva controllers setup please all the disk groups and vdisks. is the eva recoverable with this file though or do i need to do it via the sssu command above? is this controller dump more of just a config file for HP to review the system setup? or can they use this to recover the system state for you?

Also once i've upgraded how often should i backup the config? is before and after a change often enough??

[Torsten.]

Witch the configuration backup taken by SSSU you can easily re-create all the diskgroups, vdisks, hosts and presentation. Just run as a script (or parts from this script) from SSSU.

[Bowtasdw]

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSu​pport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=120&prodS...

so the process outlined there is not a valid backup??

[Johan Guldmyr]

The link does not work.

[Bowtasdw]

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=120&prodSeriesId=3900918&prodTypeId=12169&objectID=c02641188&printver=true

[Johan Guldmyr]

The controller configuration dump output is in .XML format if I'm not mistaken (while the capture configuration is in SSSU format?).

The SSSU command reference guide has some details about using 'capture configuration' and how to restore:

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02493404/c02493404.pdf

[Bowtasdw]

so the link you posted earlier what i just repost is not a valid config backup?? yes the config dump was a .tar which extracted to a xml file.

so this xml file is a reference only usless as a backup??

[Johan Guldmyr]

As far as I could see at least in the 'capture configuration' command you could not make it use .xml.

You could use the .xml to store/visualize the configuration.

[Bowtasdw]

So what does backing up the EVA configuration allow you to do anyway? does it just allow you to recover from a mistake when making config changes?

I've just been told EVAs have a tendency to lose there configuration sometimes. being you shut them down then turn them back on and they come back on as an uninitialized unit and have lost all the data on the disks. will resorting a configuration even allow you to recover data on the luns you created or will it just restore that configured state and you will be going to backups to restore the data anyway??

[Johan Guldmyr]

If your array loses it's configuration you shouldn't do anything besides calling HP support.

Odds are that the reason why the array "lost" the configuration is because the controllers cannot find the metadata for some reason.

In the case that happens, having the configuration stored and to be able to provide it to the hp support might be a good thing to have (and then the controller configuration dump is/was better than the one from capture configuration via sssu).

If you for some reason need to empty the array and re-create all the arrays slightly differently it might be easier to use the 'capture configuration' as a template.

If you make a mistake, you can't just re-load the old config and that will get it back to the way it was. It depends on what kind of mistake it is I suppose and if it was done while it's in production or not.