Volume Shadowing between MSA 2040 / MSA 2050 ?

[Max Pierre]

Hello,

We would like to replace two very old EVA storage Arrays still in production, located in two computer rooms and replicating their volumes between the EVAs by means of Volume Shadowing. The EVA are shared between different OSes (VMware, Linux, Windows and OpenVMS) and the project is focused on the complete isolation of the OpenVMS environment with its own and dédicated FC SAN (dual FC Fabrics)..

No decision has been taken yet to either use HPE OpenVMS 8.4 (MSA2040) or VSI OpenVMS (MSA 2050)..

OpenVMS on the MSA is supported but restricted to specific firmware versions..

HPE supports the MSA 2040 on 8.4.

VSI supports MSA 2040 and 2050 from 8.4-1H1.

We have no experience with OpenVMS on MSA Storage Arrays.

Below, a drawing with what we would like to implement. The drawing shows HPE 8.4 / MSA 2040 but is the same for the combination VSI 8.4-1H1 / MSA 2050. Is this configuration recommended ?

Does anyone has some experience with configurations like this one ?

Thanks in advance for your replies

[Volker Halle]

Max,

what kind of problems do you envision ?

If it's supported, it should work.

If you decide to stay on HP(E) OpenVMS I64 V8.4, configure the MSA 2040 and the disk, zoning etc. Then run $ MC SYSMAN IO AUTO and see, if the new disks show up. Try to $ MOUNT/FOR them, to see if reading from the disks work. Then try $ INIT disk label, to see, if writing works.

Then add the new disks to the existing shadowsets. With V8.4, you can add the 2 new members to the 2 old members as well. Let the shadow-copies complete. Then use @boot_OPTIONS to change the boot pathes on the rx2800 i2, reboot and you're done.

If you want to move to VSI OpenVMS, I would suggest to go all the way up to V8.4-2L3 + current patches, the latest and greatest - and probably the last - version of VSI OpenVMS I64. This would need updating OpenVMS and the layered products.. Some more work, but you get the most recent version.

Volker.

PS: you used the work 'replication' in your post, this is a 'foreign concept' to OpenVMS. OpenVMS uses shadowing ! Once the operating system returns the IO to the application, it guarantees, that the data had been written successfully to ALL members of the shadowset. If you want to use the word 'replication' it should be used as 'synchronous replication'.

[Brad McCusker]

The only question you asked is if anyone has experience.  Yes, we have multiple sites experiences with that hardware and similar configs.  We've done the migrations from EVA to MSA just as you've discussed.  While we strongly recommend the upgrade to VSI, it's not required (though seems a shame to get most of your environment current while leaving your OS unsupported).  

I've even included migrations like this in a Bootcamp session if I recall correctly.

Please feel free to reach out to us for more information.  I believe my contact information is in my signature and/or profile.  

Good luck

[Brad McCusker]

It appears that HPE has changed the forums, again, and my profile is not visible as it used to be.  So, please feel free to reach out to me at **Personal info erased** for more information on our experiences with migrations as you describe above.

[Max Pierre · Accepted solution]

Hi Volker and Brad,

Thanks for your replies.

As I said, I needed some confirmations that the solution was "working" and was quite common. I have no experience with  OpenVMS using MSA Storage Arrays.. I did not find any OpenVMS/MSA configuration exemples. This move from HPE/EVA to VSI/MSA is expensive . +/-  200 K€ for OpenVMS, Clustering, Volume Shadowing and two compilers (5 yrs license subscription ) for 3 small servers RX2800 i2, dual cores, 4 GB of memory.. 

Before posting my question in the forum, I tried to get answers from VSI and HPE. VSI finally told me that they aren't making and selling hardware devices and answers regarding configuration and support of hardware are to be found at the hardware manufacturer side. HPE did not answer me ...

If the move is decided, remains the problem of the MSA hardware availability. HPE do not sells MSA 2050 anymore, HPE Renew told us that this MSA model availability was so low that we should forget the idea to get it from them. If MSA aren't bought from HPE, where can one found specific firmware versions required to be supported by HPE ? Is it possible to get HPE support contracts for hardware sold by someone else (hardware acceptance) ?

Unfortunately, MSA GEN 6 on VSI OpenVMS aren't supported by HPE. For sure, it would help and simplify the life of people willing to have onsite hardware support and firmware updates. In our case, VSi x86 Basic and Cobol compilers won't be available before ~2 years (?); add the time to recompile and test, the swicth to X86 in production is not expected before a long time.

Volker, I had the same migration plan in my mind. Upgrade from 8.4 to 8.4-2L3, upgrade compilers and move to MSA by adding MSA volumes (linear storage) to EVA shadow sets. Sorry for the use of replication. I'll use synchronous replication from now.

Brad, thanks for sharing your experience. I'll come back to you if the move to MSA is decided and if have some specific questions on MSA/OpenVMS.

Best regards

Max

[Brad McCusker]

Max 

Why the focus on MSA?  There are other, newer, available storage solutions for VMS.

I'm also not sure why you mentioned the x86 compilers when you are talking about Integrity servers.  

Either way, I agree it's not cheap to make such a move. 

Good luck. 

[Max Pierre]

@Brad McCusker Brad,

Integrity servers are not sold anymore, soon out of harware support (i4 and i6). and VSI is porting OpenVMS on the most popular hypervisor and processor. 

This is a small but critical configuration. It uses 5 shadows sets for a total of ~ 2 TB.

May I ask you what other low end FC Storage Array you are thinking about ? Thanks

Pierre