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Re: Can new disk enclosure be hot added to existing MSA2012FC?

 
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Eddy-Poortman
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Can new disk enclosure be hot added to existing MSA2012FC?

This probably has been asked before but I haven’t found an clear answer to my question.

 

First of all I am not an storage expert, I am just the piano player that will be shot ……… if it does not work.

 

Our company has an C7000 enclosure with 4 HP Blade servers running VMware ESX 4.0 soon to be upgraded tot ESX 4.1 update 1.

Virtual machines are stored on an fiber channel disk enclosure MSA 2012FC with dual controllers. We want to expand our disk capacity by adding an new disk enclosure to our existing enclosure. The system supports up to three enclosures.

 

Can the new enclosure be hot added to the existing enclosure?

 

Some post say it can be done but others advice to bring down the enclosure. The is not our preferred option due to the fact that the virtuals have to be kept operational.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

 

 

Eddy Poortman.

 

 

P.S. This thread has been moved from General to Storage Area Networks (SAN) (Small and Medium Business). - Hp Forum Moderator

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Can new disk enclosure be hot added to existing MSA2012FC?

As per the service guide it is possible to add disk enclosure online because this is hot-pluggable module.

 

Removing any component significantly changes the airflow within the MSA products. The system will shut down in approximately five minutes if the removed component is not replaced or a blanking panel is not inserted.

 

But always good to have planned downtime and do the Job.


I work for HPE
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Eddy-Poortman
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Re: Can new disk enclosure be hot added to existing MSA2012FC?

Thanks, the problem is.. not changing board in an existing unit.

 

The existing unit has two modules installed with the option to expand to an next unit.

See http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13187_emea/13187_emea.HTML#Configuration Information for details.

 

I want to add the second enclosure and connect it to the expansion ports #6.

 

Regards.

Eddy-Poortman
Visitor
Solution

Re: Can new disk enclosure be hot added to existing MSA2012FC?

An new MSA2012 can not be hot added to an existing configuration. In case an new disk enclosure has to added to an existing configuration the following steps have te be performed.

 

1. shut down your Blade server.

2. power down your existing disk enclosure with the FC controller cards,

3. connect the SAS cable between the enclosures,

4. power up the new enclosure and wait foor 5 minutes for the enclosure to spin the disks and come on line,

5. power up the enclosure with the FC controller cards and wait for 5 minutes to spin the disks and come on line,

6. check trough the FC controller management interface if the new enclosure is visible/available,

7. power up your Blade servers.

 

Joshua Small_2
Valued Contributor

Re: Can new disk enclosure be hot added to existing MSA2012FC?

Having recently gone through this, it bears clarifying because there is conflicting advise.
The G2 and G3 of this series do support hot add.
The earlier series, which is G1 or just "MSA 2012" do not support it.

If in doubt, shutdown, it's safer.