Summary:

This document outlines the process for installing and configuring the HP P4500 SAN Appliance. This document is NOT meant for the HP VSA. This document assumes that the audience has the basic skills and knowledge of storage area networks. These configurations are mainly geared for the use with Vmware vSphere 4 but could be used in other environments. The creator of this document is in no way affiliated with Vmware or HP and is not responsible for any adverse affects, performance issues, or downtime that may occur by performing the steps in this document. In other words - “Use at your own risk!”

For Vmware ESX Configuration - here

Requirements:

• 2x HP P4500 SAN Appliances
• KVM access to the HP P4500
• 2x NIC cables per HP P4500 that goes to the same switch (with Flow Control turned ON)
• HP LeftHand Central Management Software
• HP Failover Manager ESX

Standard Cabling Diagram:

Naming Convention:

The following naming convention must be followed.

Management Groups should include MG_ - Example: MG_LAB_1

HP P4500 Installation:

1. Using a keyboard and monitor connect directly to the physical HP P4500.
2. Turn on the system.
3. At the login prompt type: start
4. Hit Enter at the “Login screen”
5. Using the arrow keys move to the “Network TCP/IP Settings” then Enter
6. Select “eth0″ then Enter
7. Enter the hostname
8. Use static ip address, mask, and gateway then click Enter
9. Click OK
10. Log out
11. Repeat the steps for each HP P4500
12. Have a network admin configure “Flow Control” on the network ports being used.

Definitions:

• Management Groups—Management groups are collections of storage nodes within which one or more storage nodes are designated as managers. Management groups are logical containers for the clustered storage nodes, volumes, and snapshots.
• Servers—Servers are application servers that you set up in a management group and assign to a volume to provide access to that volume.
• Clusters—Clusters are groupings of storage nodes within a management group. Clusters contain the data volumes and snapshots.
• Volumes—Volumes store data and are presented to application servers as disks.
• Snapshots—Snapshots are copies of volumes. Snapshots can be created manually, as necessary, or scheduled to occur regularly. Snapshots of a volume can be stored on the volume itself, or on a different, remote, volume.
• Remote Copies—Remote copies are specialized snapshots that have been copied to a remote volume, usually at a different geographic location, using the SAN/iQ software feature, Remote Copy.

1. Open the CMC
2. Go to “Help” then “Preferences”
3. Uncheck the “SmartClones Volumes” element
4. Check the “Management Groups” element
5. Check the “Clusters” element
6. Check the “Volumes” element

1. Expand “Available Nodes” - If there are no Available Nodes, use the “Find” option in the menu
2. Expand the first storage node then click “TCP/IP Network”
3. Click the “TCP Status” tab and verify that “NIC Flow Control” is ON for each network adaptor.
4. Click the “TCP/IP” tab.
5. Either select both network adaptors and right click or click “TCP/IP Tasks” then select “New Bond”
6. Change the Type to “Link Aggregation Dynamic Mode (802.3ad)”
7. Configure the correct IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway then click “OK”.
8. Click “OK” the finalize the configuration.
9. Now you must have a network admin configure LACP.
10. Click the “DNS” tab
11. Configure the DNS Domain Name, DNS Domain Servers, and DNS Suffixes.
12. Click the storage node at it’s top level.
13. Click the “Details” tab and verify the RAID: is Normal.
14. Repeat steps 7 thru 19 for each storage node.

Create Management Group:

1. Right click on a storage node
2. Select “New Management Group”
3. Name the “Management Group” i.e. “MG_LAB_1“
4. Select All nodes to be added to the management group then click Next
5. Enter the User Name and Password then click Next
6. Add a NTP server (domain controller) then click Next
7. Select a cluster type of “Standard Cluster” then click Next
8. Name the “Cluster” i.e. “CL_LAB_1” then click Next
9. Click Add then enter the clusters virtual ip address and subnet mask then click OK
10. Click Next
11. Check the “Skip Volume Creation” then Finish.

Add FOM to Management Group:

1. Expand the Management Group
2. Right click the Virtual Manager if it exists
3. Select “Delete Virtual Manager”
4. Click “OK”
5. Right click the FOM.
6. Click the “Add to Existing Management Group“
7. Select the Group Name
8. Click “Add”
9. Right click the “Sites”
10. Name the site with the 3 digit site code i.e. LAB
11. Check the “Make this site primary”
12. Add all the storage nodes and the FOM
13. Click “OK”

Create Volume:

1. Right click the “Cluster” or select the cluster Details tab then click “Cluster Tasks”
2. Select “New Volume”
3. Give a name to the volume i.e. “VOL_ESX_LUN01“
4. Give a size for the volume
5. Click the “Advanced” tab.
6. Set the “Data Protection Level” to “Network RAID-10 (2-Way Mirror)“
7. Set the “Provisioning” to “Thin“
8. Click “OK”

Add Server:

1. Under the Management Group right click the “Servers” folder or click “Server Tasks”
2. Select “New Server”
3. Give a Name - the name should match the actual server
4. Check the “Allow access via iSCSI”
5. Check the “Enable load balancing”
6. Under the Authentication section Select the “CHAP not required“
7. Enter the “Initiator Node Name” (This is the IQN from the ESX or Windows Server)
8. Click “OK”

Assign Storage to Server:

1. Select the server in CMC then select the “Volumes and Snapshots” tab
2. Either right click the server or click “Tasks” then select “Assign and Unassign Volumes and Snapshots..“
3. Check the “Assigned” for the volumes
4. Set permissions to “Read/Write”

Feature Registration:

1. Go to https://webware.hp.com/ and register the storage nodes using the License Documentation that came with the HP P4300/P4500 Storage System LTU.
2. Click the Generate New License
3. Login with the HP Passport account
4. Follow the instructions then use the license key
5. Repeat for each storage node

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Antone Heyward