topic Re: Hot extend Array with VMware ESXi 4.x in Disk Enclosures

Hot extend Array with VMware ESXi 4.x

damien.schmitt — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 06:33:02 GMT

Hi,

Is there a way to hot extend a RAID 5 array without shuting down a VMware ESXi 4 server ?

Thanks.

Damien.

Jan Soska — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:10:31 GMT

Hello,
it may depend on more factors...
1) what is your storage? Are you able to expand disk online?
2) if yes, you can expand fmfs datastore under gui - I did it under ESX4, check my thread here: http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1446056

Jan

damien.schmitt — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:16:18 GMT

On local P400 array only. Quite easy on SAN.

Jan Soska — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:20:01 GMT

hello,
I have never tried expand raid5 on smartarrays, but did it with raid1. I think this should work.
Let's check manual pages for P400 (user guide?) - should be described. http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual〈=en&cc=us&docIndexId=64179&taskId=101&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=1157687

Jan

Jan Soska — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:22:10 GMT

ahh, I forgot to mention - it is a must to have battery backuped cache on p400 - if you want do online operations...

Jan