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How to Install a VA7410 RAID Array

By Craig Lalley

First, I would only install a VA7410. Over the years, I have learned the VA7410s are much more reliable than the VA7100s.

You want to make sure that you have the latest firmware on the controllers. And yes, max out the controller memory to 2GB per controller. Then make sure you have the latest firmware on the drives. The good news is that the firmware has not changed, so hopefully it will already current. Contact me if you need the latest drivers.

The official HP supported configuration specifies either a PC or HP-UX workstation running CommandView.  Since the VA7410 has a dual-head controller, you can have two connections to the HP 3000 and one connection to the CommandView workstation. The CommandView workstation is required to update the firmware, and do performance logging.

When configuring the VA it is always better to have lots of small LUNs instead of a few big ones. What that means: make your LUN 9-18GB in size. Use Autoraid, not mirrored. The VA7410 is rated at 45,000 IOs per second, there is nothing the HP 3000 can do (especially an A-class) to make that VA sweat.

The HP 3000 supports 2GB/second.

Yes HAFO is supported, and is set up in SYSGEN. What I do is put the even LUNs on one controller and the odd LUNs on the other. Since both controllers "see" all the LUNs, HAFO is a snap.

Make sure you have the correct PDC firmware on the HP 3000. (The N-Class is 43.43, the A-Class is 43.50.) If you don't have the right PDC, don't even bother with the VA.

And remember, FCSCAN is your friend. TDUTIL to verify the path, i.e  TDUTIL "0/12/0/0"

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