| Q1. |
What are the improvements in the EVA4100/6100/8100 customer usability and supportability experience? |
| A1. |
Usability and supportability improvements have been made in the area of customer replacement of certain EVA replaceable units (RUs), disk drive code load, and improvements in the support for XCS firmware code load encouraging wider usage of the non-disruptive code load feature. In addition, EVA4100s, EVA6100s and EVA8100s have been designed and continually enhanced for customer self repair.
In response to customer requests for greater self maintenance flexibility, the standard warranty now includes mandatory customer self repair on disk drives, bezels, and the controller enclosure’s cache batteries, power supplies, blowers and operator control panel. XCS v6.110 and Command View EVA v7.0 supports customer self repair on both hard and intermittent disk drive failures and Customer self upgrade of drive firmware. Customer self repair always requires a clear identification of a failing or failed part. When Instant Service Enterprise Edition (ISEE)/Proactive Replacement Service (PRS) is in use, HP, receives failure notifications, contacts the customer, and orders the new part for a standard delivery of next business day. Each RU comes with replacement instructions in seven local languages. OCP failure is the only device not addressed by ISEE. If, for example, the panel display or a button appears broken, customers need to call HP to initiate repair. Improvement to drive code load capability allows customers to update drive firmware without the need for downtime or lengthy ungrouping and data migration.
EVA Service support for online XCS code load has been improved to allow for wider adoption/usage of this feature in all supported operating systems. Increased adoption of online upgrades will facilitate XCS upgrades in customer environments where there are small downtime windows. Encouraging customers to stay current on XCS firmware releases assures that the EVA provides the highest level of reliability and availability.
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| Q2. |
What is mandatory customer self repair? |
| A2. |
In response to customers seeking more self sufficiency and competitive product offerings, EVA4100s, EVA6100s and EVA8100s have been designed and continually enhanced for customer self repair. Unit replacement of hard disk drives, bezels, and the controller enclosure cache battery, power supply, fan, and operator control panel is now so easy these parts have been assigned mandatory self repair status for EVAs under warranty with an entitlement date of 2/12/2007 or later. Disk shelf power supplies and fans, and all cables and transceivers remain optional self repairs. Note: Other failed EVA components, may also be repaired by customers subject to HP - customer agreement. Complex issues which can not be diagnosed remotely or involve multiple RUs are not candidates for CSR and will be handled under the EVA Warranty.
Under mandatory CSR, if a failed part is clearly identified, customers are required to replace the part or pay for others to perform the repair. Customers who purchase an HP EVA Support Agreement have the option to perform Customer Self Repair or receive on site support.
If a customer does not want to perform a mandatory self repair, HP or partner support is available for an additional fee. See the Storage Works Limited Warranty statement for more information.
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| Q3. |
What is the HP EVA File Services (EVA File Services)? |
| A3. |
HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array File Services (EVA File Services) is an integrated application (block) and file storage solution. It can serve both block and file data concurrently with high availability and scalable performance. It is designed for mid-range and enterprise customers wanting to consolidate their online data storage with one simple solution. The EVS-FS includes redundant HP StorageWorks 4/8 Base SAN Switches, 1 HP ProCurve Ethernet switch, 16 HP 4GB Short Wave Transceivers, Ethernet interconnect cables between the internal modules, FC interconnect cables between the internal modules, power cords for all modules, and mounting hardware for all modules, installation and startup.
EVA File Services can support the CIFS, NFS, HTTP, FTP file serving protocols. EVA File Services for Linux supports CIFS file serving on a single node.
The Windows version of EVA File Services does not currently include a bundled NFS solution. HP recommends the Hummingbird Maestro product for this function.
EVA File Services can be added to an existing EVA by ordering an HP EFS Clustered Gateway. For more information on how to order an Clustered Gateway refer to: http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/efs/index.html
EVA File Services includes installation and startup. Once the unit has been delivered HP or authorized service personnel will complete the software configuration of the application (block) and file services. EVA File Services fully supports Business Copy EVA and Continuous Access EVA to provide advanced Snapshot and replication services
NOTE: EVA File Services are factory integrated and requires the purchase of an EVA4100/EVA6100/EVA8100.
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| Q4. |
Why are EVA File Services better than traditional file servers offered by competitors? |
| A4. |
Every traditional file server and NAS appliance has a single performance limit. As demand for files being served reaches that performance limit it takes longer for files to be served. Traditional file servers and NAS appliances also suffer from a single point of failure. The EVA File Services does not have a single performance limit or a single point of failure. The EVA File Services enables file serving protocols, such as CIFS and NFS, to be scaled in a near linear fashion to unprecedented absolute I/O throughput and performance, with no single points of failure and integrated fault tolerance. |
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| Q5. |
What are the HP EVA4100 Starter Kits? |
| A5. |
For your convenience a complete 4Gb ready to go small-SAN solution is available factory racked and tested. It’s targeted at SMB, small data centers and departmental IT environments that demand robust, affordable, and easy to manage and deploy SAN storage. The small-SAN solution comes with redundant EVA4100 hardware in a 2C1D configuration, XCS v6.110, with 8 FC HDDs (either 146GB or 300GB capacities) and Command View EVA software plus licensing for up to 4TBs. The EVA4100 SAN Starter Kit includes all of the above, plus1 HP StorageWorks 4/8 Base SAN Switch, 4 HP StorageWorks FC2142 4Gb PCI-e HBA, and the EZpilot software. EZPilot installs and configures not only the EVA storage but the infrastructure components as well. The EVA4100 SAN Starter Kit has been designated by Microsoft as compatible with Simple SAN for Windows Server 2003. |
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| Q6. |
What is the difference between an EVA Starter Kit and the EVA4100 Starter Kit for the BladeSystem? |
| A6. |
The Starter Kit for HP BladeSystem can only be sold on the same quote as an HP BladeSystem enclosure. Also, the Starter Kit for BladeSystem does not include hard disk drives or the EZPilot software. This Starter Kit is not available in Europe, Middle East and Africa. |
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| Q7. |
What is the value that HP Storage Essentials SRM Software brings to EVA and Command View EVA? |
| A7. |
Standard Edition SRM Software is an affordable solution that optimizes SAN capacity, increases IT staff efficiency and simplifies end-to-end troubleshooting and reporting. With a unified SRM solution, one administrator can manage far more EVA SAN storage. It lets you visually monitor EVA and SAN infrastructure topology, zones and health status from a single interface. It monitors performance for troubleshooting bottlenecks, tracks real-time performance metrics and provides historical trends and capacity planning—all things that you need people to do today.
HP Storage Essentials Enterprise Edition SRM Software suite targets medium to large enterprise heterogeneous, multivendor SANs while Standard Edition SRM Software targets midsize businesses with small to medium HP storage-based SANs. Standard Edition SRM Software is a pre-packaged affordable and easy to order. Standard Edition SRM Software is limited to supporting a reduce subset of SAN infrastructure. The Standard Edition SRM software is basically a SRM starter kit which includes licensing to use (LTU) and HP Installation and Startup Service. LTU includes 150 MAPs of Enterprise Edition Software LTU and selected Enterprise Edition SRM Software plug ins: 4TBs File System Viewer and NAS Manager and choice of 1 MAL of either Exchange or Database Viewer. HP Installation and Startup service was reduced to 3 days compared to Enterprise Edition which starts at 5 days.
HP Storage Essentials SRM Software does not replace hardware-based device managers such as HP StorageWorks Command View EVA Software, but complements them with an efficient broader integrated tool set to manage a complete EVA and infrastructure ecosystem from a single, secure WEB-based unified server and storage management interface. You have one interface for SAN and NAS management and with optional software plug-ins you can monitor status of the entire backup process.
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| Q8. |
What is HP StorageWorks Continuous Access EVA for the Enterprise Virtual Array family? |
| A8. |
HP StorageWorks Continuous Access EVA is a host-independent, HP StorageWorks EVA array-based solution that offloads servers of replication tasks, meeting stringent requirements for data coherency, system performance and data integrity. EVA4100/6100/8100 customers running XCS v6.110 can purchase an optional Continuous Access EVA license for their Enterprise Virtual Array units. Using Continuous Access EVA, customers can now even replicate data between all of their EVAs - EVA3000s, EVA5000s, EVA4000s, EVA4000 Starter Kits, EVA6000s, EVA8000s, EVA4100, EVA4100 Starter Kits, EVA6100 and EVA8100 - and replicate data on high performance enterprise drives to FATA drives. |
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| Q9. |
Does Apple Mac Operating System provide full feature EVA support? |
| A9. |
Apple Mac OS X is supported using the EVA Linux Host Mode at first release. Through the use of an ATTO HBA and multipath driver the Apple Mac OS X is supported on the EVA in full heterogeneous multiple paths mode. Business Copy EVA and Replication Solutions Manager for local replication are also supported. |
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| Q10. |
What is meant by rack independent EVA8100, storage centric and multiple product EVA8100 offerings? |
| A10. |
The EVA8100 provides both storage centric and multiple product offerings. The difference is in the customers desired racking choices. The EVA support a variety of sizes and configurations of the 10000 G2 series racks. The EVA8100 provides a bundled offering similar to the previous EVA4000 and EVA6000 which can be racked into various 10000 G2 Universal racks. By choosing the storage centric SKUs the customer indicates their desire to configure just the EVA in the rack. Alternately the customer may want to rack servers, back-up and the EVA in the same rack and this is where the multiple product SKU would be used. These racking choices allows customers to customize and factory configure any product supported by the 10,000 G2 Universal racks with the EVA. |
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| Q11. |
What does the new switched drive enclosure and fully switched backend provide to the EVA? |
| A11. |
The M5314C drive enclosure provides point to point connectivity within the enclosure for excellent EVA4100 performance and disk diagnosis. The EVA is the only array to offer a fully switched backend. The EVA6100 and EVA8100 architecture include backend loop switches from the controller to the drive enclosures. The backend loop switches improve performance and improved availability over traditional arrays. All EVA provides dual paths (Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) or Switched) from each controller; providing a redundant path from each controller. In a traditional array, the path from the controller to the device shelf is a single FC-AL loop. In the event of the single path failure these traditionally architected arrays must failover to the other controller to access the disks. |
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| Q12. |
What does virtualization mean? |
| A12. |
In technical terms storage virtualization is the transparent abstraction of storage at the block level. It separates out logical data access from physical per-disk data access. Virtualization can occur at any level of the storage area network (SAN) including the server level, fabric level, and storage system level. The EVA family of products uses virtualization at the individual storage system level to create large pools of storage behind the controllers.
The business benefits include: simplified management, improved utilization of capacity, high performance, and powerful data replication tools.
For an in-depth look at virtualization and the EVA, please refer to the following
white paper: Storage Virtualization and the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array found at: http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/arraywhitepapers.html |
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| Q13. |
Why are Fibre Channel disk drives important? |
| A13. |
Fibre Channel high performance and hybrid disk drives offer dual port access for redundancy and load balancing while offering higher connectivity to more disk drives per port than SCSI, SATA or PATA disk drives. The low cost FATA drives allow customers to more inexpensively manage their IT investment by providing a hierarchy of online storage options. |
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| Q14. |
What are the available EVA hardware upgrade paths? |
| A14. |
When customers need to grow an EVA4100 beyond a 2C4D configuration, they will need an EVA Dual Loop Switch Option and from one to four more M5314C drive enclosures. The FC connections from the controllers to the drive enclosures will have to be re-routed to the loop switches and then to the drive enclosures. The upgrade can be performed with data-in-place. Similarly, when customers need to grow an EVA6100 beyond a 2C8D configuration, they will need an EVA8100 Controller Assembly option, EVA Dual Loop Switch option and additional M5314C drive enclosures (up to 12 total in a single cabinet or 18 with an expansion cabinet). The upgrade can be performed with data-in-place.
Customers can upgrade from existing 2/4Gb EVA4000/6000/8000 array controllers to the EVA4100/6100/8100. The upgrade will require the installation of new controllers, I/O modules and possibly loop switches. They can use their existing M5314A/B drive enclosures but must upgrade the A and B I/O module within the enclosure. Upgrading from an EVA3000 or EVA5000 requires the replacement of the controllers, loop switches and I/O modules and EMUs (and possibly loop switch to drive enclosure cables). The upgrade can be performed after shutting down the controller and with data-in-place.
Please see the product specifications or contact your HP sales representative for more information or your HP Service representative for an upgrade assessment.
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| Q15. |
What is the EVA iSCSI solution offering? |
| A15. |
EVA iSCSI support is available through the HP StorageWorks EVA iSCSI Connectivity Option. This powerful solution provides iSCSI connectivity to an EVA utilizing the EVA’s existing Fibre Channel infrastructure.
The iSCSI Connectivity Option extends the advantages of Fibre Channel SANs into smaller departments and remote locations. This EVA option allows customers to incorporate iSCSI servers within SANs without requiring additional storage arrays or management costs. Use the EVA’s Command View software to manage the iSCSI connectivity to the array and mount the iSCSI device in the same rack as the array.
The iSCSI EVA solution is perfect for small or medium businesses that wish to take advantage of the simplification of storage consolidation and are application-focused on Microsoft® Exchange, Microsoft® SQL, or Oracle Database. Companies that have not had the resources or expertise to deploy Fibre Channel Storage Area Network architecture or have a mixed environment of iSCSI and SAN also benefit from the iSCSI Connectivity option by connecting application hosts to storage using an Ethernet-based network. The solution provides better storage utilization, simplified management, and cost savings by consolidating storage and centralizing management while leveraging their existing Ethernet infrastructure as a storage network. It is easy-to-use and affordable and uses the HP ProLiant DL380 G4 or DL585 Storage Server and the HP ProLiant iSCSI Feature Pack.
Business Copy features such as Snapshot, Snapclone, and restore from Snapclone are supported with the iSCSI solution. These features may be controlled via Command View, Replication Solutions Manager, or command line. Replication Solutions Manager support with iSCSI hosts is limited to basic control without the use of this product's host agents. For more information:
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/evaiscsiconnect/index.html
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