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?

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?

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.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the above.
Thanks!

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