8x00 Enterprise Virtual Array Updating Product Software Guide XCS 6.110 (5697-6782, June 2007)

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upgrade process. Selecting a period of low I/O activity will ensure the upgrade completes as quickly as

possible, and will avoid disruptions to host and applications due to timeouts.

When performing an online upgrade, select a time period that meets the following criteria:

• I/Os per second (IOPS) should be less than 7000

• I/O throughput should be less than 70 MB/s

NOTE:

The above values apply when upgrading the EVA4x00/6x00/8x00 storage systems. These values do

not apply to EVA3 000 /5000 storage systems.

Analyzing storage system I/O using HP Command View EVAPerf

The HP Command View EVAPerf tool included with HP Command View EVA can be used to gather and

analyze statistics on storage system utilization. This section pro vides recommendations on using HP

Command View EVAPer f to gather statistics to help identify p eriods of low storage system activity.

If you are unfamiliar with HP Command View EVAPerf, see the “M onitoring array performance” chapter

of the HP StorageWorks Command View EVA user guide for more information. See Table 3 for the

link to this guide.

Tips for using HP Command View EVAPerf

Use HP Command View EVAPerf to identify periods of low I/O activit y, during which you can safely

perform on online upgrade of the storage system ﬁrmware. Use the following tips to ensure that you select

an appropriate period during which I/O is low and remains low.

NOTE:

Before using HP Command View EVAPerf, you may want to conﬁgure friendly names to simplify

identifying your storage systems, virtual disks, and hosts. See the

HP StorageWorks Command View EVA

user guide

for more information about friendly names.

• Identif

y a period of time when you anticip ate the I/O load on the storage system will be low. This

is the wi

ndow to focus on when running HP Command View EVAPerf to gather I/O data.

• Run HP Command View EVAPerf to gather I/O data during the chosen window. For example, if

you suspect that I/O load may be low between midnight and 2 AM on Sunday morning, run HP

Command View EVAPerf during this period.

• If the I/O pattern is low, capture the data over the same time period several more times to ensure

the lo

w I/O pattern is repeatable.

• When you have selected a potential time period for the upgrade, perform the following steps to

ensure I/O activit y does not increase unexpectedly during the upgrade:

• Alert all system users of the need to minimize the load on the storage system during the time

period you have selected for the upgrade.

•Iden

tify any automated processes that may increase I/O load during the upgrade period,

inc

luding backup applications and scripts. E nsure these processes are suspended for the

dur

ation of the upgrade.

HP Command View EVAPerf command options

The following op tions are used with the HP Command View EVAPerf comm ands:

• -csv: Use comma separated output. This format is useful for importing large amounts of data

into a spreadsheet for analysis.

• -cont n: Runs the command continuously at an interval speciﬁed by n. The default interval

is one second.

Pre-upgrade tasks