Boot from disc array

[MarkSyder]

Hi everybody.

As per my earlier thread of this week, I have an SC10 disc array and have just inherited a Raid array.

At present, the operating system is on a single internal 9 Gb disc. I have been planning to put it on the SC10 array on two 18 Gb discs which would be mirrored to each other. But now that I've got the Raid array, I'm thinking instead of mirroring one disc in the SC10 to a disc in the Raid, so the system will still boot if either the SC10 or the Raid fails. The disc in the SC10 would be the primary boot as I believe this is a newer array and therefore faster.

I've been reading past threads regarding booting from Raid and have seen that some people object to it for various reasons: e.g. if the array goes down you can't even bring the system up in single user mode. I hope my plan gets round this by having the mirroring across two external devices rather than just one.

Furthermore, I feel that the plan provides the advantage that the operating system will be on hot-swappable discs.

In conclusion, I can see advantages and disadvantages to the planned setup and would appreciate the thoughts of anyone who has experience of such a setup or anyone who can give me good reasons for or against the plan.

I expect I will have finished for the day by the time most American forummers come online, so I'll read through the suggestions and award points on Monday.

Mark Syder (like the drink but spelt different)

[RAC_1 · Accepted solution]

I don;t see that happeneing. I think it's possble only with VxVM. What kind of server are you using. (which model)

[MarkSyder]

9000/800/A500-5X

Mark

[RAC_1]

With PDC firmware above certain version and with VxVM it should be possible.

[RAC_1]

http://docs.hp.com/en/5873/HPUXSANBootWP.pdf

This should give you what you want.

[MarkSyder]

Thanks RAC.

The word from HP is that I can't boot from the RAID array.

Mark

[RAC_1]

What are the details? What are requirements- in terms of hardware/software or any other requirements?

[MarkSyder]

RAC,

My requirement was a simple piece of information: can I boot from this Raid array. HP's answer is no.

If your question is what hardware/software combination do I need to be able to boot from it, I'm afraid I don't know.

Mark

[Torsten.]

Hi Mark,

the firmware of the server must know how to use the HBA and the array to be able to boot from.

For this reason, only certain models of HBAs and arrays are supported as a boot device (usually all HP arrays).

You have to look up the specs of your HBA and array model to be sure this is a supported configuration.

It is very unlikely that you can boot from a third party array.