Hi,
I had two questions regarding the installation of our new
StorEdge A5000 (full text at the end).
As I found out, there is even a ssa-users mailing list available!
You will find out more about it at
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/pub/mail-lists/ssa-managers/
where you will also get links, among them links where I found the
below mentioned SUN product configuration matrix!
And now the the summary of answers I received:
Thanks go to:
Pam Skillman <skillman@East.Sun.COM>
John Reynolds <reynolds@illustra.com>
<steve.turgeon@putnaminv.com>
Roger Klorese <rogerk@veritas.com>
The first question was about the Solaris Patchlevel necessary for the A5000.
steve.turgeon@putnaminv.com sent we the official SUN Configuration Matrix
for SSA, A5000, Volume Manager and Disksuite.
The most explanatory answer came from Pam Skillman, System Support
Engineer from SUN:
>The A5000 is *not* supported prior to Solaris 2.5.1 8/97 w/ MU.
>Minimum support is Solaris 2.5.1 8/97 with MU (Maintenance Update),
>Volume Manager 2.4 w/ 105208-03. You *must* have the MU installed.
>
>Also, their are numerous patches/firmware updates that *must* be
>installed and must be installed in a particular order as some of
>the firmware patches are dependent on the others being there prior
>to the firmware being updated. A software/firmware configuration
>matrix is available to your Sun engineer and they can make sure
>you are ready to go *after* all the patches have been installed.
>I have been to customer sites that were having problems and it
>was caused by not having the patches installed and in the right
>order. Good Luck!
Regarding the second question - our configuration with the Volume
Manager - Roger Klorese wrote:
> The only thing that's a bit strange is the answer. :)
>
> The reason for the 1-block subdisk is so that your I/O *does* align.
>
> As you probably know, the VTOC (volume table of contents, or partition
> table) for SunOS/Solaris/SPARC disks is at the very first addressible
> block. This is why you can only put file systems, not raw partition
> data, at cylinder 0 on a Sun non-VxVM disk: use of the partition will
> eat the partition table. This problem doesn't occur with file systems
> because they implicitly skip the first block.
>
> Volume Manager deals with this by slyly substituting a block elsewhere
> on the disk, so that your file system can physically start at the second
> block, and if you delete it, you can create a raw volume that won't
> damage the disk either.
>
> The cylinder-boundary thing is enforced -- in fact, protected -- by this
> arrangement.
=============================================================================
> From: apriebe@aip.de (Andreas Priebe)
> Subject: Installing Software for a new StorEdge A5000
> Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 15:39:48 +0200 (MET DST)
>
> Hi all,
>
> we have recently purchased a StorEdge 5000 which is connected to
> an Enterprise 4000 Server.
> The server is running 2.5.1 (almost unchanged since installation approx.
> at end of '96) with an attached SSA 112 under control of the Volume
> Manager 2.1.1
>
> Last Friday a service engeneer (not directly from SUN) installed the hardware
> and I cant see any difference in /var/adm/messages after a boot -r.
>
> Now two of our main questions:
>
> 1. The docs for A5000 state that Solaris HW 8/97 is necessary to operate it.
> The service engeneer said, our release is OK, everything what is needed
> comes with the array and is on the Volume Manager CD (Volume Manager 2.5).
> So he just wanted to start with an upgrade from Volume Manager 2.1.1 on the
> machine to the newly delivered 2.5.
> But we are afraid he is wrong and we need the HW 7/98 CD?!?!
>
> 2. He stated that our configuration is a "bit strange" and he was afraid to
> start the upgrade. Our configuration among others has a root disk group
> rootdg with a rootvol.
> The rootvol contains two subdisks rootdisk-B0 and rootdisk-02.
> rootdisk-B0. The Comment-field in the rootdisk-B0 properties says
> "Remap of block0" and rootdisk-02 has an offset of 1 sector.
> This configuration we have since an upgrade to Volume Manager 2.1.1 (which was
> done by a original SUN engeneer about 1 1/2 year ago).
>
> The install manual states something about starting volumes for / /usr /var &
> /opt on cylinder boundaries.
> Will this be a problem with the above configuration? (E.g. with the 1 sector
> offset)
>
> If needed, I can of course provide additional information and further detail.
>
> TIA, and greetings from rainy Germany,
>
> Andreas
-- The box said: "Requires Windows 3.1 or better," so I bought a Macintosh. **************************************************************************** * Andreas Priebe * Email : APriebe@aip.de (PGP key available) * * Potsdam, Germany * WWW : http://www.aip.de:8080/~apr/ * ****************************************************************************
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