HP StorageWorks XP Remote Web Console Software - Manual (Page 54)

54 Continuous Access XP Journal operations requirements and restrictions
RAID group and journal group configurations
A RAID group can consist of physical volumes with a different number of revolutions, physical volumes
with different capacities, and physical volumes with different RAID configurations (for example, RAID-1
and RAID-5). A RAID group’s data transfer speed is affected by the physical volumes and RAID
configurations.
A journal volume’s data transfer speed depends on the data transfer speed of the RAID group to which
the journal volume belongs. One RAID group can consist of one or more logical volumes, including
journal volumes. Therefore, if frequent accesses are made to non-journal volumes in a RAID group,
relatively fewer accesses can be made to journal volumes in the same RAID group, which can cause a
drop in the journal volumes’ data transfer speed. To avoid this drop, you should consider, for example,
relocating journal volumes and frequently accessed non-journal volumes (that is, placing journal groups in
one RAID group and placing frequently accessed non-journal volumes in another RAID group).
Arranging journal volumes
The following indicates the data transfer speed of journal volumes mentioned in ” Data transfer speed
required for journal volumes ” on page 53.
If a host attempts to write data of aa kilobytes and the number of write I/Os per second is bb, the data
transfer speed required for journal volumes is calculated as follows:
Data transfer speed of journal volumes > aa x bb ÷ 1,024 (MB/sec)
The journal volumes’ data transfer speed must exceed the data transfer speed from hosts to the primary
array. You must consider the data transfer speed (that is, the speed for writing and reading) required for
journal volumes, determine the physical volume and RAID configurations of RAID groups, and create
journal volumes in the RAID groups.
Journal volume capacity
In Figure 12 , the size of the shaded area indicates the amount of journal data to be stored in journal
volumes as a result of a temporary increase in data transferred.
If a temporary communications path failure occurs between the primary and secondary arrays, journal
transfers between the primary and secondary arrays temporarily stops. If hosts transfer data to the
primary array while journal transfers between the primary and secondary array are temporarily stopped,
all data transferred from the hosts to the primary array is stored as journal data in the journal volumes.
Figure 12 Influence of data transfer speed on journal volume capacity
The following factors determine the required journal volume capacity:
• Period of time during which data transfers can continue between hosts and the primary local array
when a temporary increase in transferred data occurs or when a communications path failure occurs
between the primary and secondary local arrays
• Data transfer speed for the period of time mentioned previously
To determine the journal volume capacity, use the following formula: