Operating Environment Software Manual

</StorageEntry>
</StorageEntries>
Modifying physical servers with local disk information
In a Virtual Connect environment, the Insight Dynamics software automatically gathers
information about server blades (memory, processors, and potential connectivity). Local disk
information (also referred to as DAS – Direct Attached Storage) is not currently gathered, so it
is necessary to annotate the collected server information to indicate if it has a local disk with
particular properties. Local disk boot volumes are not represented by storage pool entries.
HP Insight Dynamics infrastructure orchestration (Insight Orchestration) includes support for
Virtual Connect logical servers using a local disk for boot. Although these logical servers lack
the flexible movement of those using boot from SAN, a logical server using local disk boot can
be initially activated on a server, the operating system installed on the local disk, and then later
suspended and activated back onto that same physical server. If the logical server is activated
on a different physical server (with a local disk of suitable size), the operating system must be
re-deployed.
NOTE: You cannot create a logical server and specify a local disk using the Create Logical
Server wizard. You must specify boot from SAN disks. Local disk support is available only for
logical servers created by Insight Dynamics infrastructure orchestration.
The LSMUTIL --exportAnnotations command exports an XML file called
computeActuals.xml containing the physical resources representing server blades on which
a logical server can be activated. That XML file can be annotated to indicate the server blades
that have local disks.
The file is then imported using --importAnnotations. After the import, Insight Dynamics is
aware of the compute resources that have local disks that can be used as boot volumes. That
information is shared with Insight Dynamics infrastructure orchestration along with information
about storage pool entries. Insight Dynamics infrastructure orchestration can then determine
the appropriate resources to support instantiating a given service template.
The computeActuals.xml file contains a <CliComputePhysical> element for each physical
server blade capable of hosting a logical server. The file can be modified to indicate local disk
information in the <CliLocalDisk> element in <CliComputePhysical> for each physical
server having local disk to be used for boot.
Key properties in <CliLocalDisk> are:
<name> to identify the disk
<storageType> set to LOCAL
<shareble> set to false
<storageSizeType> set to MB
<raidLevel> set to NONE
<storageSize> size of the local disk in MB
The <description> and <volumeNumber> values can be set as appropriate for the customer
environment. Other fields, such as <deviceType>, <storageSpeed>, and <diskStatus>,
should be left unspecified.
The <CliComputePhysical> fields should not be changed (name, uuid, and
portabilityGroupID).
Example 7-3 “Example computeActuals.xml file” shows an example computeActuals.xml
file.
100 LSMUTIL database utility