configuring an HP array using the CLI – command line. hpacucli

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Afternoon.

I faced a situation this week, where I needed to build a new array on a live server, running Ubuntu 10.04. The server could NOT be rebooted, so I could not configure the array, as I would during BOOT. Luckily my colleague had installed the suite of HP tools into Ubuntu, so HPACUCLI was available to me. This is how I created the array.

within a terminal/SSH session/DOS session

first of all the help command was useful

• help create
• help add
• help migrate
• help show

using help show I was able to view the details of the controllers and the drives. so to start with I issued

ctrl all show config detail

this told me that the controller installed within my server was in slot=0. Now I could issue

ctrl slot=0 show config detail

and pull out exactly the same information, thus proving ctrl slot=0 was my controller, and is used within all subsequent commands. Next to build the array. The drives, within the “show details” statement, which I had recently plugged into the server, were showing up as 1I:1:3 and 1I:1:4. They were new 1TB drives (2 of)

Now remember that building an array and creating a logical drive are two separate things. it’s just that the web gui you may be used to, guides you through creating the array and then immediately creating the logical drive. The CLI can, if you wish, do them both at the same time. This is what I did, using “help create” i was able to work out the syntax.

ctrl slot=0 create type=ld drives=1I:1:3,1I:1:4 raid=1

which creates the array, gives it the next letter, then creates a logicaldrive and sets it up as RAID 1.

After running a ctrl all show config detail I realised that it had created my RAID set with the default stripe size of 256. For my mysql purposes I wanted a stripe size of 64, which meant I had to modify the array. Again, using “help modify” I was able to find the correct syntax. My new logical drive (ld) had now been given the label 2

ctrl slot=0 logicaldrive=2 modify stripesize=64

All done. Another show detail command show my logicaldrive with the revised stripesize of 64K. Show detail ALSO shows the device label, in my case /dev/cciss/c0d1 –