Problems with 300GB disks & MSA1000

[Antonio Gonzalez_4]

I've the same problem described (& closed) in:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=854579
Same error installing 4 x 300GB RAID5 unit.
- The unit is well below the 2TB limit (tis was the problem in the referenced message).
- All the disks are same part-number (300GB). The error is:

CLI> add unit 5 data="Disk107 Disk114 Disk305 Disk312" raid_level=5
WARNING: The physical drives assigned to this unit are different sizes.
If the unit is created, 10% or more of the total space will be wasted!

In fact the unit looses many blocks, but it may be the decimal to binary numbering conversion.

How can I overcome this error and get the real maximum size of the unit ??

- The firmware of the unit is old:
CLI> show version
Firmware version: 3.30 build 211
Hardware Revision: 7
Internal EMU Rev: 1.86

but, after a loss data disaster updating firmware on another MSA1000, the customer is very reluctant to update the firmware in this production box without a clear HP support statement.

The O.S. is Tru64 5.1A Trucluster, but of course, the problem is NOT the O.S. in this case.
I'm using the CLI, not the ACU.

The final unit got this size:
First volume to be configured on these drives.
Logical Unit size = 858300 MB
RAID overhead = 286100 MB
Total space occupied by new unit = 1144400 MB
Free space left on this volume: = 1 MB
Unit 5 is created successfully.

Questions: is safe to go ahead with this unit ?
Do you see the size of the logical unit is something reasonable or not ?

Thanks in advance

[Jefferson Humber]

Just because the disks are the same part number doesn't mean they are necessarily exactly the same. I've had two sticks of Compaq RAM for a Proliant which had the same part number, but actually looked different (and wouldn't work together)! Are there any other markings on the disks which would tell them apart ? i.e. HDD F/W revision?

As for the volume it looks like the MSA is using each disk as 286.1Gb. The manuals state that it will use the characteristics of the smallest/slowest disk in the set. What does a SHOW DISKS see them as ?


Jeff

[Antonio Gonzalez_4]

Jeff, you can read bellow the great ;-) info provided by the CLI:

CLI> show disks
Disk List: (box,bay) (bus,ID) Size Units
Disk101 (1,01) (0,00) 146.8GB 1
Disk102 (1,02) (0,01) 146.8GB 1
Disk103 (1,03) (0,02) 146.8GB 2
Disk104 (1,04) (0,03) 146.8GB 1, 2, 3, 4 (spare)
Disk105 (1,05) (0,04) 72.8GB 3
Disk106 (1,06) (0,05) 146.8GB 4
Disk107 (1,07) (0,08) 300.0GB none
Disk108 (1,08) (1,00) 146.8GB 1
Disk109 (1,09) (1,01) 146.8GB 1
Disk110 (1,10) (1,02) 146.8GB 2
Disk111 (1,11) (1,03) 72.8GB 3
Disk112 (1,12) (1,04) 146.8GB 4
Disk113 (1,13) (1,05) 146.8GB 4
Disk114 (1,14) (1,08) 300.0GB none
Disk301 (3,01) (3,00) 72.8GB 3
Disk302 (3,02) (3,01) 72.8GB 3
Disk303 (3,03) (3,02) 146.8GB 4
Disk304 (3,04) (3,03) 146.8GB 4
Disk305 (3,05) (3,04) 300.0GB none
Disk308 (3,08) (3,09) 72.8GB 3
Disk309 (3,09) (3,10) 72.8GB 3
Disk310 (3,10) (3,11) 146.8GB 4
Disk311 (3,11) (3,12) 300.0GB none
Disk312 (3,12) (3,13) 300.0GB none

I know that part number .ne. hardware inside, but in this case ... I think that all the 300GB drives should came from a single vendor. (can't check it now).

thanks a lot
antonio

[Jefferson Humber]

Well, it certainly hasn't wasted the 10% or more it said it would.

I was once told that HDD manufacturers define 1Gb as 1,000,000,000 bytes. Most O/S's define 1Gb as 1,073,741,824 bytes (1024^3)....... Confusing to say the least.

The link below states F/W v.4.32 for 300Gb(10K) HDD support for OpenVMS & Tru64, under the 'What's New' section.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11621_div/11621_div.HTML

Jeff