topic Re: Increase Volume Capacity in MSA Storage

Increase Volume Capacity

XFreitas — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:53:47 GMT

I need assistance; I have two HP servers connected to an HP MSA 2040 storage unit. Both servers are virtualization nodes in a cluster. I needed to increase the capacity of a volume associated with a virtual machine, a file server. I have 3 volumes on the storage that are not being used but appear in the Storage Disks section in Failover.

How could I do this without losing the data?

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

ArunKKR — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 08:57:24 GMT

Hi,

The below information is purely from MSA storage perspective.

A normal windows partition created from MSA volume could be expanded by extending the volume in MSA first.
Once the MSA volume is extended, the additional capacity would appear in windows disk management as unallocated next to the original partition.
The windows partition could then be extended through disk management.
In your configuration I guess you are trying to add capacity by merging two or 3 MSA volumes in windows disk management.
You may consider deleting the additional unused volumes from MSA end (assuming you are using virtual pools in MSA 2040 and the additional volumes are from same Pool) to create free space and use that free space to extend existing volume.
MSA 2040 supports both linear vdisks and virtual pools.
Please confirm whether you are using Windows failover cluster manager and share operating system version so that any windows operating system experts could share their inputs about volume expansion.

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

XFreitas — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 11:31:25 GMT

Thank you @ArunKKR

The operating system deployed on both the Cluster Nodes and the Virtual Machine serving as the file server are Windows Server 2012 Standard.

I am attaching a screenshot of my configuration for the MSA Vdisk and the Failover configuration for your reference.

MSA VDISKS

FAILOVER DISKS

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

ArunKKR — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 12:26:35 GMT

Hi,

As per Microsoft advisory, the free space needs to appear as unallocated in windows disk management to extend the partition:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/high-availability/extend-partition-cluster-shared-disk

For the free space to appear as unallocated the MSA volume needs to be expanded.
Only standard volume can be expanded.

This is a linear vdisk as per the screen shot.

Click on vd01_FS0000 volume.
The right pane would list the volume type as either Standard or Master.
Click on vdisk vd01.
The right pane would show the free space if any in the vdisk.
You could use the free space to extend the vd01_FS0000 volume.
If there is no free space in the vdisk vd01 you may delete the volumes vd01_DBSQL0001 and vd01_PGSQL001 to create free space in the vdisk.

Right click on the volume, select Tools > Expand volume.
In the main panel, specify the amount of free space to add to the volume.
Click Expand Volume

MSA 2040 SMU guide:

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=c04220794

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

XFreitas — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 12:52:59 GMT

Thank you once more!

Upon selecting the "expand volume" option, I observed some available space. However, after reviewing the Microsoft article, I have a clear understanding that it is imperative to perform a file backup prior to proceeding with this action. For your reference, I am providing a screenshot of the expansion section within the MSA.

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

ArunKKR — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 12:57:09 GMT

Hi,

The vdisk has enough free space to expand volume.

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

XFreitas — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 13:33:30 GMT

I've noticed, but it seems strange, why did they left this spare space?

It raises a question as to why such space was intentionally left unused.

An interesting observation is that in a previous incident when one of the disks exhibited erratic behavior and required replacement, the storage system continued to function seamlessly even without the immediate introduction of a new disk.

This leads to speculation that this reserved or spare space could potentially serve as a contingency when disk failures occur.

What do you think?

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

ArunKKR — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 13:39:16 GMT

Hi, MSA allows configuring additional hard disk as a vdisk dedicated spare or global spare. When one of the disks in any vdisks fails the spare disk will kick in and reconstruction of vdisk will get completed in few hours. In your case the free space in vdisk would have been left by the storage administrator for future use. There is no other advantage of leaving free space in a vdisk.

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

XFreitas — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 17:27:10 GMT

I understand.
I will back up the files before proceeding with the expansion.
Just to confirm, where can I check the spare space for the cases when a disk fail?

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

ArunKKR — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 17:37:12 GMT

Hi,

There is no concept of spare space in MSA storage.

We can only configure disk as dedicated vdisk spare or global spare.

Click on enclosure 1 under Physical.

The right pane will list the disks.

Spare disk would have the characters SP next to it.

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

ArunKKR — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 17:54:32 GMT

Hi, The disk in slot 3 is configured as global spare and disk in slot 4 is configured as dedicated vdisk spare in the below screenshot.

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

XFreitas — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 04:46:16 GMT

In mine here, the disks are showed in a different way, look:

[Moderator note: Post edited and removed the confidential info.]

Re: Increase Volume Capacity

ArunKKR — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 08:31:07 GMT

Hi, All the disks are part of vdisk in your configuration. There is no additional disk configured as spare in the array.