Review Msa Installation Best Practices; Planning; Installation - HP 353803-B22 - StorageWorks Modular Smart Array 1000 SAN Starter Installation Manual

Review MSA installation best practices

MSA installation best practices fall into one of three categories: planning, installation, and ongoing.

Planning

• Before installing your MSA (and periodically afterwards), go to the MSA1000 website to
confirm your installation plans and read current information about the device:
http://www.hp.com/go/msa1000
• Prepare for the installation by reviewing the Configuration Installation and Overview poster. This
poster will help you gather all of the items required for the installation.
• Record information about your system on the provided worksheets. System information is needed
when configuring the storage, entering connection information, setting up multipathing, and for
future configuration changes and reference purposes. Use the "Configuration Planning
Worksheet" on the Configuration Installation and Overview poster or "Worksheets" on
page 105 of this guide.

Installation

• Install your MSA in the sequence listed in this guide. Several installation and configuration steps
include dependencies and if you deviate from the listed sequence, you may have to uninstall and
then reinstall your MSA. Difficulties that you encounter by not following the directions in this
guide may result in lost time and lost revenue while troubleshooting the issues. For example, in a
Windows environment, when you power up the server after installing the HBA for the MSA,
Windows displays a "New Hardware Found" message and prompts to install an HBA driver.
You must cancel out of this window or Windows will install an HBA driver that is unsupported for
use with the MSA.
• When installing the MSA, consider redundancies of power, storage, and data paths to ensure
uninterrupted access to the storage.
• To provide redundant power, plug the two power supplies on the MSA into separate
Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPSs) on separate sources of power. If you have only one
UPS, maintain separate power paths by plugging one MSA power supply to the UPS on one
power source and plug the other MSA power supply to a separate power source.
• To provide redundant storage, configure your Logical Units (LUNs) using fault-tolerant
Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) levels and striping methods. Stripe the LUNs
vertically across separate storage enclosures on different SCSI buses, including drives from
each bus.
• To provide redundant data paths, you must include two separate and isolated Fibre Channel
fabrics and the associated hardware and software components in the configuration. You must
include two MSA controllers, two Fibre Channel interconnect devices (switches/fabrics), and
a minimum of two HBAs per server. In addition, multipathing software must be installed on
each server with access to the MSA.
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