At 11:03 AM 2004-03-10, John MacLerran wrote:
>Dear HP3000-L Folks,
>
>I have a couple of questions regarding setup of disk drives on a 3000.
>
>Our system is a 4-way 440MHz N4000, with 13 LUNs spread across 2 Nike Mod 20
>arrays (MPE 7.0, PowerPatch 2).  The system was set up with a single volume
>set. We've been told we can increase the performance of the box by using
>user volumes, because each volume set would get its own instance of the
>transaction manager.  However, our system manager remembers being told, some
>time ago, that multiple volume sets weren't necessarily always a good idea,
>because of the increased complexity of managing them -- various system tasks
>(like backup, user and group creation, etc.) became more complicated with
>multiple volume sets.  He can't remember who told him this, and can't find
>any confirming information in his notes from the time, thus the question:
>Is it a good thing?  Does it complicate system management tasks? If so, by
>how much?  Also, how would we get there from here, are we looking at a
>reload? Can you point me toward documentation that might list the steps
>required?

In my opinion, your particular environment does NOT call for user volumes.

I believe user volumes are appropriate ONLY for systems with a large number
of disk logical volumes NOT protected by hardware mirroring.

The slight benefits afforded by the additional transaction manager
instances do not outweigh the additional complexities of management
overhead and inefficient disk space utilization resulting from
implementation of user volumes.



>Second question. Currently, all the disk drives are set up with the same
>device class name: disc.  We'd like to split drives 2-13 into a separate
>device class name (e.g. datadisc, or something similar), so we could exclude
>LDEV1 when we create files  (eg :build blah;dev=datadisc). Can I attach a
>second device class name to the desired disk drives without a reload?  Can I
>do it while users are on the system, or do I need exclusive access?

Yes, this can be done without a reload.

You need to add the class DATADISC to your system in both SYSGEN and VOLUTIL.

In fact, this can be done even without a reboot, by invoking DOIONOW after
SYGEN IO changes or IOCONFIG - either of which enable dynamic configuration
changes.


>Third (and last) question.  Like I said above, we have 13 LUNs spread across
>2 Nike Mod 20s (actually, 13 sets of mirrored pair drives with a couple of
>hot spares thrown in for good measure). The Nikes go off HP maintenance at
>the end of June. We have been unsuccessful in getting information from HP as
>to whether we can pay extra and keep those arrays a special support
>contract, or if there is a reasonably-priced migration path for those arrays
>(we know about the VA-7110; no one here considers it reasonably-priced...).
>  I'd be interested in hearing ideas about what we should do after June. Is
>there a reasonable pool of Mod 20 parts in the after market?  What about the
>individual drives (we have both 9 and 4 gig drives)?  We are in the
>migration boat, and don't expect to stay on the 3000 much beyond 2007, so it
>wouldn't be long-term.

No need to worry about availability of mod20 replacement parts.

The mod20's are solid and parts should be readily available beyond 2007.

Have you considered a previously-owned VA7100. The performance on an N4000
is AWESOME, and, from my experience, is reasonably priced.

Of course, that may depend on one's definition of "reasonable".


>I'd appreciate any thoughts on the above.
>Thanks!
>
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gilles Schipper
GSA Inc.
HP System Administration Specialists
300 John Street, Box 87651   Thornhill, ON Canada L3T 7R4
Voice: 905.889.3000     Fax: 905.889.3001
email:  [log in to unmask]  web: http://www.gsainc.com
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