B320i Raid 5 Expansion/Extend

[Carlos_Figueira]

Good day to you all,

We bought a DL380e Gen8 with smartarray B320i. Only one Raid 5 volume was created with 4x600GB SAS at the initial setup.

Now we need to allocate more space to this volume and i was trying to add an additional 2x600GB SAS but i don't see any option to add more disks to the existing Raid 5. The only option i get is to add them as spare drives to the existing Raid 5.

I have read the manual but haven't seen any information regarding volume expand. Only Raid migration.

The B320i has 512MB and capacitor installed as attached.

Any help would be apreciated.

Best regards,

Carlos

P.S. This thread has been moved from Microsoft > General to ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL). - Hp Forum Moderator 

[Suman_1978]

Hi,

I was going through the B320i quick specs and guides and could not find any information on Online Array Expansion.

I guess this controller does not have that capacity.

Suggestion: Try Intelligent Provisioning at the server POST, go to Performing maintenance -> HP Smart Storage Administrator.  Check if you get the Array Expansion option under this which is Offline mode.

Note: Be carefull with your data, do take a backup before doing such operations.

Thank You!
I am a HP employee.

[Jimmy Vance]

I checked with a contact in sotrage, array expansion is not supported on the B320i.

[Carlos_Figueira]

First of all, thank you for the comments.

This being said, i have 2 options to add more storage:
1 - Add more disks and thus another RAID1/5
2 - Add another smartarray model capable of extending the existing RAID5

Can we buy a smartarray P series (Ex: Smart Array P410/512 BBWC - 462864-B21) and connect the hard drive backplane to this new controller ? This would provide online expansion without sacrificing another disk. It's also more cost efective.

My question is based in the following document:
http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.BINARYPORTLET/public/kb/docDisplay/resource.process/?spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay_ws_BI&spf_p.rid_kbDocDisplay=docDisplayResURL&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&spf_p.rst_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-resourceState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c03326739-2%257CdocLocale%253D&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

Am i seeing this right ?

[kazuza]

Your best chance for a trouble free migration is to perform a full backup and then build a new array with the desired configuration. Later, with a P410 you can even expand the array from the cli

[Jimmy Vance]

Yes, you can add a "P" series Smart Array controller and move the backplane cable from the B120i to the new controller.

[Carlos_Figueira]

I read the manual further and the supported controllers for this model (DL380e G8) are Smart Array P222 / P420 / P421 and P822.

The P420 (would be our first choice), has 2 mini sas connectors. Are they the same as the connectors for the B320i or do i need to buy additional cables ? Can anyone confirm this ?

Thank you all for your comments.

[Jimmy Vance]

The B120i and B320i use mini-SAS connectors