I have two used HP EVA 8000 AD524B drive enclosures with 14 146gb drives in each. They have 2 Fibre controllers in each. I would like to connect these two units to an HP Proliant DL380 G4 server running Windows Server 2008 and create 1 (or 2) big drive.
I understand I need a FC HBA (card) in the machine and the cables to connect from the card to the units.
However, I am hoping Windows can then recognize the drive(s)/unit(s) and create drives without special HP software (without using HP's Command View EVA). I understand the HP software has many benefits such as multi-path, but at this point I simply want to connect the units as direct attached type storage in windows.
I believe this is the reference manual.
More info here.
UPDATE:
I was able to get a q-logic hba and connect an LC-LC fibre cable from the HP EVA to the q-logic card. My Windows Server 2008 R2 machine is now able to see all 14 of the drives! However, this is of course not a raid configuration. So I am wondering:
– If I create a raid 5 volume in windows disk manager, is that considered a hardware raid and if so, do you see any issues with doing that?
– Is there some way I can create a raid 5 volume in the HP EVA unit without having to purchase the HP EVA software (or is there an older version or a demo that would let me at least initially set it up)? — update: I was able to download the HP EVA software as a demo (see comment below).
Best Answer
You 100% will need an FC HBA, the appropriate drivers for that HBA, some form of MPIO software such as MS's MPIO code (plus the EVA DSM) or Veritas Storage Foundation and you WILL need Command View EVA in order to configure the EVA.
Once setup you'll need to us CV to create at least one disk group, set the ports to loop/direct mode (as you'll be using them in direct connect mode without FC switches), define your server as a host, create vdisks and present them to you host. Then in your OS you do a rescan, loom for the LUNs then partition and format them.
You can't connect them in any other way, the shelves are FC only and they need a controller to manage them. Oh and the shelves are perfectly capable of acting as one,