Disk compatibility with VMS

[owilliams]

I have 50GB Luns that is OPEN-V is this compatible with VMS?

[Hein van den Heuvel]

So you are using XP-storage? Or Hitachy?
Should work.

There is an active discussion in this forum which is probably of interest to you:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1139926


Also:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1137513

Finally there is the support statement in:

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/roadmap/openvms_roadmaps_files/openvms_roadmaps_notes.pdf


So why are you asking?
'Just' planning or is there something that does not work for you?

What seems to be the problem? Specific errors? Intermediate displays you can attach as a text file?

Cheers,
Hein.

[owilliams]

One of our disk is running low on space and we were planning on adding this as a solution. What do you think?

[Volker Halle]

Is the 'disk that is getting full' also a SAN disk ($1$DGAx) ? And part of a shadowset ? If so, are you ready for DDS and DVE ?

Do you have other 'OPEN-V' disks in use on that system ?

Volker.

[owilliams]

Yes it is a SAN disk.

[Volker Halle]

Your SAN controller may offer the functionality of increasing the size of a disk 'on-the-fly'. An EVA (HSV) can do this.

If you're running at least OpenVMS V7.3-2, you could use DVE (Dynamic Volume Expansion) to also increase the size of your OpenVMS disk in the running system. Check with SHOW DEV/FULL $1$DGAx: for the Expansion Size Limit of that disk. You can expand a disk up to that limit online with SET VOL/SIZE, once you've increased the size of the underlying disk.

If your disk has not been set up for DVE, you can do this with SET VOL/LIMIT, but this requires that you need to privately mount that disk, so you need to temporarily dismount it (cluster-wide) for this operation.

For a recent discussion about DVE, see this topic:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1139928

Volker.

[owilliams]

Our storage people have added the disk. How can I verify that it was added correctly?

[Volker Halle · Accepted solution]

Can you already see the new SAN disk as $1$DGAnnn: ? Has it been presented to your OpenVMS System ?

$ MCR SYSMAN IO AUTO/LOG

Does it discover the new disk ? If so, INIT the disk with a scratch label and try to mount it.

Volker.

[owilliams]

Here is the output:
%SYSMAN-I-OUTPUT, command execution on node NRCAVA
%IOGEN-I-PREFIX, searching for ICBM with prefix SYS$
%IOGEN-I-PREFIX, searching for ICBM with prefix DECW$
%IOGEN-I-SCSIPOLL, scanning for devices through SCSI port PKA0
%IOGEN-I-FIBREPOLL, scanning for devices through FIBRE port PGA0
%IOGEN-I-CONFIGURED, configured device DGA1550
%IOGEN-E-LOADERR, error configuring device OHA0, driver SYS$OHCIDRIVER.EXE
-RMS-E-FNF, file not found
%IOGEN-I-FIBREPOLL, scanning for devices through FIBRE port PGB0
%IOGEN-F-FTLIOERR, fatal I/O error while trying to access device
%IOGEN-I-FIBREPOLL, scanning for devices through FIBRE port PGC0
%IOGEN-I-CONFIGURED, configured device DGA1550
%IOGEN-I-SCSIPOLL, scanning for devices through SCSI port PKB0

[Volker Halle]

So the new disk seems to be DGA1550.
Try MOUNT/FOR $1$DGA1550: first to see, if you can do IOs to that disk. It should mount with an empty label - that way you know, that this disk has never been initialized on OpenVMS.

Then

$ DISM $1$DGA1550:
$ INIT $1$DGA1550: scratch/LIMIT
$ MOUNT $1$DGA1550: scratch
$ SHOW DEVICE/FULL $1$DGA1550:

check the expected size

$ ANAL/DISK $1$DGA1550:

$ SHOW DEV/MULTI $1$DGA1550
and check for the correct number of pathes to the disk.

Feel free to post the commands and results in an attached .TXT file.

Volker.

[owilliams]

Here is the output from the commands provided.

[Hein van den Heuvel]

So there seems to be useable 50GB device behind DGA1550:

"Disk $1$DGA1550: (NRCAVA), device type HP OPEN-V,... Total blocks 113890560"

The storage folks can probably confirm the WWID values.

There was a problem with the INIT /LIMIT.
Either the OpenVMS version you are using is way old, or someone redefined INIT.
- Which OpenVMS version?
- SHOW SYMB INIT

Anyway... You could move forward and try the straight init.
Personally I would recommend you first do: $MOUNT/OVER=ID $1$DGA1550:

And make sure this is not storage in use before the init.

You are close to bringing the new storage to live.

However, in view of the questions asked and information provide I would urge you to consult with a peer or product support before really moving forward. This to make sure an optimal configuration is made and no damage will be done.

Also... if more info is needed the PLEASE attache it as SIMPLE TEXT file and clean out typo's, leaving just real commands, results and erors.

Cheers,
Hein van den Heuvel

[Volker Halle]

As Hein has already said, the disk looks good and it's not been initialized before on OpenVMS. You're probably running an older version of OpenVMS (less than V7.3-2). Find out with:

$ SHOW SYS/NOPROCESS

Go ahead and initialize the disk and mount it system-wide. Then you are ready to use it. If you know more about what you'll be putting on that disk in the future (no. of files etc.), you may want use use some more specific qualifiers on the INIT command.

Volker.

[owilliams]

OpenVMS V7.2-2

[owilliams]

Would you recomend any qualifier as a standard?

[Hein van den Heuvel]

With 7.2 you are limited to about 1 million clusters = allocations units: (256 blocks of bitmap.sys). And thus also a max of 1 million files.

While the minimum clustersize will be 109, I would recommend /CLUST=128 or 112 (128 - 16)

If you expect many (100,000+) little file then this many be too much waste (10% of the disk). For fewer ( less that 10,000 ) larger files it matters little (less than 1% waste in rounding).

If that cluster size is high (more than those 100,000 files expected) then you may want to go back to the storage folks and request 2 times 25GB instead of 1 times 50.

Better still... get an upgrade to OpenVMS going. At least 7.3-2 but why not 8.3?

I would highly recommend you anticipate the number of files expected + 10% and and indicated that value to /HEADER

Might as well make sure the default MAXFILES is appropiate while there (about 1/2 million).

I would also chose /INDEX=BEGIN but that's more taste / guttfeel than well founded advise.

Enjoy,
Hein.

[Jan van den Ende]

Hein wrote

>>>
With 7.2 you are limited to about 1 million clusters = allocations units: (256 blocks of bitmap.sys). And thus also a max of 1 million files.
<<<

Hein, are you sure of that? As far as my (regrettable quite fallible) bio-memory remembers, the limits you mention were lifted at the intro of 7.2

VERY nice features as Dynamic Volume Expansion and Dissimilar Device Shadowing were introduced during 7.3-2, perhaps uou are confusing those?

But, owilliams, also since 7.2-2 (which introduced SAN support) MANY and important advances in SAN use were introduced. If you are to profit from SAN, you REALLY should move to at least 7.3-2 with the later UPDATES; or better to 8.3.

fwiw,

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Uwe Zessin]

Here we are:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/73final/6017/6017pro_030.html

See "Limits of Storage and Index File Bitmaps"


pre-V7.2:
255 blocks * 512 byte/block * 8 bits / byte = 1,044,480 bits or clusters

V7.2 and up:
65,535 blocks * 512 byte/block * 8 bits / byte = 268,431,360 bits


Today, you can even initialize a disk with about 137 harware GigaBytes using a cluster factor of 1.

[owilliams]

Sorry to ask such a question. But how do I get it to stay mounted?

[Volker Halle]

To make sure that the disk is mounted again after a system reboot, add the necessary mount command into your system startup file, typically SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM

Volker.

[owilliams]

Thanks. I am getting this error when I attempt to create a directory:
CREATE/DIR CLUSTERDISK2:[CONRES]
%CREATE-E-DIRNOTCRE, CLUSTERDISK2:[CONRES] directory file not created
-SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHDEV, no such device available

[Volker Halle]

What's CLUSTERDISK2 supposed to be - a logical name ?

$ SHOW LOG CLUSTERDISK2

It's probably not defined or does not point to a valid device.

Did you do a MOUNT/SYSTEM dev: label CLUSTERDISK2 ?

Volker.

[owilliams]

I did not do that. I did a
Mount/system

then it asked me for a label and I entered CLUSTERDISK2.

[owilliams]

Please see the attachment.

[Volker Halle]

OpenVMS MOUNT creates a logical DISK$label automatically, if you do not specify the 3rd parameter on the MOUNT command line.

So in this case, try CRE/DIR DISK$CLUSTERDISK2:[CONRES]

or specify:

$ MOUNT/SYSTEM disk CLUSTERDISK2 CLUSTERDISK2

Volker.