8x00 Enterprise Virtual Array release notes (XCS 6.200) (5697-0024, May 2009)

Upgrade type

Upgrade path to XCS 6.200

Current XCS version

Online or offlineUpgrade directly to 6.2006.000

Online or offlineUpgrade to 6.110 then to 6.2005.110

Online or offlineUpgrade to 6.110 then to 6.2005.100

Contact HP Services for upgrade information if you are running these versions.5.0xx

Customer self upgrade is supported from XCS 5.1xx to 6.110 or later. To determine if your configuration supports customer

self upgrade from XCS 5.1xx to 6.110 or later, see customer advisory c01035921, entitled HP StorageWorks Enterprise Vir-

tual Array XCS 6.110 Release (for customers upgrading from XCS 5.1x0).

See HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) online controller firmware upgrades white paper for information about

online upgrading. This document is located at: http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/arraywhitepapers.html?jumpid=

reg_R1002_USEN.

Upgrading controllers

To upgrade from an HSV200-A or HSV210-A controller to an HSV200-B or HSV210-B controller, HP

requires that you also upgrade both I/O modules (A and B) to AD623C (I/O Module A) and AD624C

(I/O Module B) on each disk enclosure. If you are upgrading to an EVA6100 (HSV200-B) or EVA8100

(HSV210-B) and you do not already have the 30-10022-01 loop switches installed, you must also

upgrade the loop switches to 30-10022-01. For more information on the required components for

controller model upgrades, see the HP 4100/6100/8100 StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array

Family QuickSpecs document.

For more information on storage system behavior during a firmware upgrade, see the HP StorageWorks

4x00/6x00/8x00 Enterprise Virtual Array updating product software guide (XCS 6.200). See Table

3 on page 8 of this document.

Online controller firmware upgrade note

HP StorageWorks Engineering has determined that Enterprise Virtual Arrays which are configured

with large amounts of mapped virtual disk capacity may exceed 60 seconds when the restart of the

controllers occurs after a firmware upgrade. During this extended restart time, the array is not

processing server data and this may lead to file system timeouts. Mapped virtual disk capacity is the

sum of all virtual disks, snapshots, and mirrorclones on the array. Allocated on-demand snapshots

consume mapping space equal to the size of the source virtual disk. The online controller firmware

upgrade white paper will be updated to better reflect how to determine this restart time. In the interim,

firmware upgrades on arrays with large amounts of mapped virtual disk capacity should be done

with cautious regard to this possible extended period of unavailability. Work is in progress to determine

the cause of this extended restart time. It is expected that future firmware upgrades will benefit from

this work with decreased restart times.

Downgrading from XCS 6.200

Due to metadata changes in XCS 6.200, it will be necessary to reinitialize the storage system and

restore all data after downgrading. Before proceeding with a downgrade, you must contact HP

Services to determine if a downgrade is allowed in your configuration and, if so, to schedule the

procedure.