Introduction

HP StorageWorks EVA disk arrays provide storage virtualization services to mid-sized enterprises. Storage virtualization refers to the process of separating (through abstraction) logical storage from physical storage. The virtualization system presents to the user a logical space for data storage and itself handles the process of mapping it to the actual physical location.

The key features of HP EVA include the following:

1. Places data across more spindles and automatically re-levels when new storage is added;
2. Offers tiered storage;
3. Requires less management resources for supporting, provisioning, and maintaining the storage environment;
4. Does not require storage capacity to be pre-allocated; dynamically adds disks when more storage is required;

This way, the HP EVA array lifts the management burden of traditional storage from the shoulders of administrators, and is hence quiet popular where mission-critical applications generating a high volume of sensitive data are in use. Such environments naturally will be extremely intolerant to issues in the performance of the virtual array, as even the slightest of deviations, be it a slowdown while reading from or writing to the virtual or physical disks supported by the array, excessive space usage on the array, or a failed host port/LUN/disk, can adversely impact application performance. It is therefore imperative that the operational state and condition of the integral components of the array, such as the host port, LUN, physical disk, LUN group, processor, etc.,  the processing ability of the array, and space usage by the array are continuously monitored, and bottlenecks (if any) reported to administrators instantly. To achieve this purpose, eG Enterprise offers a monitoring model that helps administrators to continuously monitor the HP StorageWorks EVA disk array.