EVA8400: HP StorageWorks EVA Disk Array

The EVA8400 is the largest model of the EVA4400, EVA6400 and EVA8400 family of HP Enterprise Virtual Arrays. HP's QuickSpecs describe a 4U Fibre Channel dual-controller assembly with HSV450 controllers and either 14GB or 22GB of cache per controller pair, backed up by battery for up to 96 hours. It scales from 3 to 27 M6412 12-bay drive enclosures, which is 0.4 TB to 324 TB and 324 disks, spread over two racks. The 2C27D drawing in the QuickSpecs shows the full configuration.

Connections and software: each HSV450 has four Fibre Channel host ports (eight per pair) and six device ports, against four on the EVA6400. Hosts can be Fibre Channel, iSCSI, FCoE or direct connect, up to 256, with LUNs to 32TB. Controller software is XCS v10.0xx and management is Command View EVA v9.4 or v10.0, with RAID types Vraid 0, 1, 0+1, 5, 0+5 and 6.

Status: HP's May 2014 QuickSpecs notes the EVA6400 was no longer available while the EVA8400, add-on shelves, drives and software still were. HP's compatibility reference shows data-in-place upgrades into the EVA8400 (HSV450) from the EVA4400 (HSV300) and EVA6400 (HSV400) controllers; the table shows no onward path from the EVA8400.

Before ordering parts, read the controller label to confirm HSV450, and check the cache size because two cache options exist. Shelves are the 12-bay M6412A type, such as the AG638B enclosure. The smaller models in the family are the EVA6400 and the EVA4400. The storage systems hub lists other array parts.