HPE recommended volume and non-HPE recommended volume

HPE recommended volumeNon-HPE recommended volume
A volume that adhere to the StoreEasy best practice guidelines is the HPE recommended volume. HPE StoreEasy management console allows user to create only HPE recommended volume. A volume that is not created as per StoreEasy best practice guidelines is non-HPE recommended volume. Current version of HPE StoreEasy management console doesn't allow user to create non-HPE recommended volumes.
The following set of rules makes a volume HPE recommended volume:

  • 1 - 1 mapping between the array and logical drive and volume.

  • RAID 0 based volumes are not as per HPE recommendation.

    At least 1 hot spare drive or maximum 2 hot spare drives should be selected for RAID 5. For other RAID levels, hot spare drives are optional.

  • The partition type of volume should be GPT. Boot volume, system volume and reserve volume should be considered as HPE recommended volume.

  • The logical drive size should be greater than the usable volume due to OS overhead by a maximum of 5 MiB.

  • If an associated logical drive has any RAID level other than RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5, RAID 50, RAID 6 and RAID 60, then the volume should be considered as non-HPE recommended volume.

In the following scenarios, non-HPE recommended volumes can be seen on the Volume listing page in HPE StoreEasy management console:

  • If user has created the volume outside of HPE StoreEasy management console (SEMC 1.3.0) that is not as per StoreEasy best practice guidelines.

  • If the volume is not created as per HPE StoreEasy best practice guidelines using previous version of StoreEasy management console.

You will see icon beside non-HPE recommended volume name in Volume listing page (see Viewing Volumes list in HPE StoreEasy management console). Hovering over this icon will display the following message: 

This volume was created outside of HPE StoreEasy best practice guidelines.

Non-HPE recommended volumes can be displayed in the main Volumes page, however, these volumes cannot be managed using HPE StoreEasy management console.

NOTE:

  • If you change HPE recommended volume to non-HPE recommended volume outside StoreEasy management console, then this change will reflect in StoreEasy management console after 24 hours from the time when management console service started.

  • There are options within StoreEasy management console to customize your volume settings and HPE recommends you choose from those options rather than leverage other system utilities to create or modify volumes. The options present in StoreEasy management console are based on best practices and optimized for resiliency. Using external utilities to configure HPE non-recommended volumes can result in mis-configuring the logical storage layers such that it can reduce performance and resiliency.

  • Volumes attached to an MSA or external array using iSCSI or Fiber Channel connections, will be shown as Unknown.

HPE recommended volume configuration

Create one array with one logical drive, with one volume to ensure greatest flexibility with increasing capacity and to minimize any mapping issues between the different storage layers.