Identifying Virtual Disk Activity - HP 4400 Software Manual

3. When the command has finished, open the file in an ASCII editor. Identify and exclude
instances where IOPS have been exceeded. Instances where limits have not been exceeded
and where IOPS are at a minimum are periods to consider for performing the upgrade.
The following configurations and performance levels have been validated by HP for online
upgrade of controller software and disk drive firmware. All configurations include the use of
HP P6000 Continuous Access.
Table 3 Configurations validated by HP
Array
Number of disks
Disk groups
Vraid type
Total host workload
NOTE:
representations of performance data. See "Using the HP Command View EVAPerf TLViz
formatter" in the HP P6000 Command View User Guide for more information.

Identifying virtual disk activity

If you cannot identify a period that meets the necessary I/O load requirements, identify those
applications that impose heavy I/O loads, and suspend them long enough to perform the upgrade.
To do this, use HP Command View EVAPerf to view virtual disk activity.
For example, after running HP Command View EVAPerf, you determine that all virtual disks on the
array are nearly idle except for one virtual disk. To perform an online upgrade, halt the application
that is imposing the load on the busy virtual disk. This will be far less disruptive to your environment
than performing an offline upgrade.
To view virtual disk activity:
1. Double-click the HP Command View EVAPerf icon on the desktop. The HP Command View
EVAPerf command window opens.
2. Enter the following command:
evaperf vd
Select an appropriate interval and duration that will enable you to view a period during which
you plan to perform the upgrade. For example, the following command will capture data at
10–minute intervals for 2 hours on an array named EVA1, and store the output in a file named
virtual_disks:
evaperf vd -cont 600 -dur 7200 -sz EVA1 -fo C:\virtual_disks
EVA4400
96 10K RPM disks
2 disk groups of 48 disks
each
Vraid6
2950 IO/sec total host
workload
You can also use the HP TimeLine Visualizer (TLViz) tool to generate graphical
cont n dur m
EVA6400
216 10K RPM disks
2 disk groups of 108 disks
each
Vraid6
6640 IO/sec total host
workload
sz array -fo filename
Selecting a time to perform an online upgrade
EVA8400
324 10K RPM disks
2 disk groups of 162 disks
each
Vraid6
9958 IO/sec total host
worklaod
25