HP P6000 SmartStart User Guide (Windows) (T5494-96559, October 2012)

Disk group best practices
• Use fewer groups. In most cases, one group for each disk type is best. This allows the storage
system to write data simultaneously to more physical disks, which improves I/O performance.
• Include similar physical disks. Including physical disks of the same capacity and speed in a
group provides ease of management, good cost utilization, and optimal I/O performance.
• Include physical disks in multiples of 8. With online and near-online disk types, using multiples
of 8 optimizes the distribution of data on the disks.
• Use separate disk groups for databases and logs. Use separate disk groups for an application
database and its restore logs. This allows you to restore the application if its data/tablespace
disk group becomes corrupt.
Embedded Fibre Channel switches and management software
Some HP EVA4400 storage systems include HSV300-S controllers with embedded Fibre Channel
switches.
• Storage systems with embedded switches have two switches, one in each controller.
• Each switch has its own IP address and management settings.
• Embedded switches can use zoning. However, HP P6000 SmartStart does not identify switch
zoning problems. If you are not familiar with switch zoning, or do not require zoning, HP
recommends not changing the default configuration of no zoning. See Embedded Fibre Channel
switch zoning for more information.
Brocade Web Tools switch management software
Embedded switches contain Brocade Web Tools switch management software. You can run Brocade
switch management software from HP P6000 SmartStart. See Running switch management software.
The first window that appears in Web Tools is the Switch Explorer. You can use the Switch Explorer
to view and manage switches and the Fibre Channel fabric.
See the Brocade Web Tools Administrator's Guide supporting Fabric OS 6.1 for details on using
the switch management software. See Related documentation.
22 HP P6000 SmartStart concepts