MSA 20 DAS Max Partition

[IVCR]

Running a fully populated MSA20 with 750 GB drives, are there any limitations on max partition size?

[Uwe Zessin]

If by "partition size", you mean the maximum size of a logical disk, yes: 2^32 blocks = 2 TeraBytes - standard SCSI limit like many, many other devices on the market.

But you can still create one large "disk drive array" and populate it with multiple logical disks.

[IVCR]

OK, maybe I wasn't clear enough in the question so please let me try this again but provide a bit more info. We currently have a server, it is used for data collection. This collection is just that, a collection of 4k files that collect on this server for analysis later in life. Because this, I want to create 1x 4TB logical drive on the server (Win 2k3 SP2).

I know that 32 bit LBA will limit a physical drive size to 2TB, however we are only using 750GB drives. I also am aware that if we were using one of the MSA 1000 heads, we would be limited to 2TB because of the RAID being housed in the head. What i'm unsure of is that by direct attaching the MSA 20, will I just be presented JBOD or does the MSA 20 contain the RAID configuration and present logical volumes?

The reason i'm going down this road is that I have another server (non-hp) that is fully populated with 1TB SATA drives, RAID 5, 2x 4TB logical volumes. I just don't know if the HP will do this or not and I want to know before I order hardware.

[Rob Leadbeater · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The MSA20 contains a RAID controller, so would present the logical volumes to the host.

If you need volumes greater than 2TB you may be better off looking at an MSA60 disk shelf, connected to a SAS controller, such as the P800.

The P800 will support logical drives of up to 8 zettabytes.

P800 specs:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12616_div/12616_div.html

MSA60 specs:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12627_div/12627_div.HTML

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Rob

[IVCR]

Exactly what I needed, thanks!

[Rob Leadbeater]

Cool ! Remember to say thanks by assigning points.

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#28

Cheers,
Rob

[Martin Smoral]

Are you sure the MSA20 has a Raid Controller inside of it ? I thought it had a SATA to U320Scsi adapter inside to talk to a supported Smart Array Controller like a MSA1500, MSA1510i, SA64xx, SA642 or SA6i

you could always make the 2TB LUNS dynamic disks and then create a >2TB spanned volume with these.

NOTE from spec page: When using 750GB SATA HDD behind a MSA1500 or a MSA1510i, the maximum capacity available is 64 TB, maximum available storage capacity depends on the RAID level being implemented, and is based on maximum number of LUNs (32) and maximum LUN size (2 TB). Support for 750GB SATA requires minimum firmware V 5.20 on MSA1500 and V1.32 on MSA1510i and V2.02 on MSA20.

MSA20 Specs
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11942_na/11942_na.html