While configuring my lab, I would like to use some local storage inside two of my servers, by installing some VSA. I usually run with great satisfaction the HP VSA, who has been renamed recently StoreVirtual even if it keeps in some places its old name LeftHand (and also in my heart…)
From some time 10.0 binaries are available as a direct downloads rather than as an upgrade only available inside the 9.5 version of the Central Managent Console. So I downloaded the ESXi version and I installed two of them, one per server.
As usual, the VSA is deployed with a small thin disk, only available for the operating system. To use the local storage of a ESXi server, I created a new disk and I connected it at scsi channel 1:0
VMware automatically adds a new scsi controller to manage the second channel.
Once the VSA has been powered on, configured and connected to the CMC, the first task is to configure the local storage. The additional disk is in fact visible:
but anyway you need to start the RAID setup before you can use that disk. Running the RAID configuration task however lead me to an error:
(I’m quoting the error as text so to help search engines):
“Setting the RAID configuration failed. The system failed to create RAID because there is not enough memory available to accomodate the configured SAN/IQ devices: Available memory = 874.01 MB, Required memory = 2700.00 Mb. It’s possible that this storage node has higher capacity drivers than its@”
Well, the error was crystal clear, there is not enough memory to manage RAID. The weird thing is, I always used the VSA in my lab without any additional configuration, and the new VSA comes preconfigured with 2 vCPU and 1024 mb RAM. The same tasks in the 9.5 release has always been successful.
So, I shutted down the VSA, raised the memory to 2 Gb as a test, rebooted and reconnected it to the CMC. The RAID section was showing me the disk:
But RAID configuration returned as expected the same error. Expected since it was in need of at least 2700 MB of RAM:
Once I increased RAM to 3 Gb, RAID configuration obviously completed successfully.
After playing for a while this “trial end error” learning afternoon, I went back to the manuals to check. The “HP StoreVirtual Storage VSA Installation and Configuration Guide” shows the memory requirements based on the amount of local storage, and they were different from 9.5. At pag e20 you can see this table:
So, maybe next time I would check the manual “before” trying by myself, but nonetheless I have a question for HP folks: if the minimum memory size to operate the VSA is 3 GB, why the VSA is pre-configured with only 1 GB??