MSA30 MI single point of failure

[Richard.Brown]

Hi,

We have a MSA30 MI with the 4-port SCSI card in the back.
Whilst the dual bus and 4 connectors provides failover in our 2-node cluster, does the I/O card itself not represent a fundamental SPOF?

We took it out to have a look and it is one unit, and therefore if that dies then all communication with the MSA will be lost?

Can someone please clarify!

Thanks

[spex]

Richard,

You are correct: the I/O module in the MSA30 MI does represent a SPOF. Redundancy is provided through two buses and four channels, but if the entire card experiences a fault, you will lose all paths to your data. If you are concerned, you may want to keep a spare module on hand (HP Part # 335882-B21).

PCS

[Richard.Brown]

Thanks for the confirmation, is there no other alternative with the MSA30 MI, a second I/O slot or anything?

We really need no SPOF with this system, is it a case of badly spec'ed hardware and the MSA30 isnt really up to the job?

[spex]

The MSA30 MI QuickSpecs are available here:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11967_na/11967_na.HTML

As you can see, there is no option to add a second module. You might want to consider purchasing a second MSA30 and creating a RAID-1 set between the two through hardware or software (Mirrordisk/UX).

[Richard.Brown]

Once again, many thanks for confirming my thoughts!