hsz70 disk size

[Dean McGorrill]

anyone know how large you can go in disk size
with the hsz70? I just lost a 36g rz1fc, looking at a DS-RZ1GC-VW, 73gb will hsz take
that. did hp make anything larger that the
hsz can support?

tx dean

[Andreas Vollmer]

Hello Dean,

According to the SPD only 36GB SBB Disks are supported.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/info/SP6481/SP6481PF.PDF

Which version of the HSOF is on your HSZ's installed?
I am not sure if the HSZ will even recognize this disk.
If it is a production environment I do _NOT_ recommend to install it due to unexpected behaviour of the HSZ controllers and voiding the HP support.

The above mentioned Disk must be in an "Topgun Blue" SBB (Storage Building Block)? Since when it is released?
I have never heard or saw it before. This disk is not even mentioned on the HP storage web.

Regards
Andreas

[Hoff]

You can review the HP device support information for the HSZ70 and what disk(s) might have been tested with same, or you can try it and see.

The HP device support documentation would provide the official answer.

If you should decide to try these disks on this controller, I'd pattern-write the whole disk to verify correct operation and addressing from edge-to-edge (with various bit-patterns, and containing the LBN), and I'd toss random and patterned read and write I/O at it for a day or two to watch the results. Both what is written and then read, and what might happen inside the controller and its logging.

The old DIGITAL SOC entry for the HSZ70 that was just located (circa 1998) listed up to 18 GB disks. (I didn't look for any newer support information for the HSZ70.)

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs

[Dean McGorrill]

tx,
the hsz70 is at V77Z-4. We have some
RZ1FC - 36gb drives. in fact thats what
prompted the inquiry, we lost a 4 36gb disk
stripeset today. not mirrored and not enough
disks to rebuild it. so disk shopping time.
the 72.8 gig drives would be sweet, but 36
will do

[Hoff]

FWIW, bigger disks can increase your exposure to RAID5 failures; to failures during rebuilds in general.

[Hein van den Heuvel]

>> looking at a DS-RZ1GC-VW

Please correct me if I am wrong, but HP never made anything called that and thus would not have qualified that.

This looks like a 'logical' name, next in the list alphabetically, for a refurbished brick with a larger drive.

So whatever you do, you are likely to be outside support, both for hardware and for software. OpenVMS Engineering is not interested in dealing with issue which may or might not have been cause by edge conditions on a unsupported drive, even when 'hidden' behind a logical using on an HSZ. btw... OpenVMS Engineers themselves, on a personal level, are likely to be interested, but the company can not stand behind it.

I googled around some more (you probably did as well) for any experiences with anything larger than 36GB behind an HSZ70, but found nothing.

If you are in the position to just try this, then please do report back as to whether it worked and / or any complications which might have come up.

I would lean on the companies selling those
'DEC branded - DS-RZ1GC-VW' thingies to learn in what environents they have experience of them being used.
www.ezsystems.com, www.9to5computer.com,...
DEC as such of course dissapeared around the time that RZ29 - 4.3 GB drives were top-of-the-line.

Just soem thoughts,

Hein van den Heuvel
HvdH Performance Consulting

[Dean McGorrill]

fyi,
from the vendor, its a hp ds-rz1gd-vw, not gc. it will work with the hsz70 but it
needs to be at v8.6 or higher. and there is
a 1.1 terabyte limit. for the moment I've
decided to stay with the 36gig as max. but
fyi for others in here. - tx Dean

[Bob Blunt]

Dean, there isn't any V8.6 firmware for the HSZ70. All these controllers had were the V7.x families. The latest being V77Z-x (or V7.7 with ECO/Patches).

Only the HSJ80, HSZ80 and HSG80s used ACS firmware V8x and friends.

Hope that helps

bob

[Dean McGorrill]

tx,
the vendor probably thought I had
an hsz80. curious, can one buy new SBB drives from HP, or is it just the used market? I havn't found anything at the
hp site about still being able to purchase
them.