HP Storageworks MSA2212fc expansion

[Dave McLeod]

Dear All,
I have an existing SAN with HP Storageworks MSA2212fc 2 Brocade switches and a couple of VMware servers connected to the switch in 2 fabrics.

We need to expand the disk enclosures but not sure what steps to take to integrate the new enclosure. What are the things I need to avoid, like, do I need to schedule a downtime or any caveats, advice will be welcomed.

If there is a reference manual/links on how to configure the newly added enclosure that will be great.

Thank you.

[Bhavnish Kamboj (BK)]

Hi Dave,

Online procedure depends on the cabling type you have. But still it is recommended to do it in scheduled time frame. Take a down-time and then add the new enclosure.

Attached are the cabling diagrams which you can follow. Unable to upload the guide as the size is big, but you can download all the relevant docs from below link:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual〈=en&cc=us&docIndexId=64179&taskId=135&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=3687115

Hope it will help you.

BK

[Dave McLeod]

Thank you for your response Bhavnish Kamboj.

I would like to know if my configuration is according to best practice:

I have an HP Storageworks MSA 2212fc with 12 400GB disks.
- Vdisk1 single volume
5 drives is configured with RAID 5 and

-Vdisk 4 volumes
6 drives configured for RAID 5 as well
This volumes are created for VMware datastores.

Questions:
is this volume creation according to best practices or do we expand the volume?

Can we expand the volume by adding extra enclosures? if so what are the caveats downsides etc...

Thank you in advance.

[Bhavnish Kamboj (BK)]

Hi Dave,

Raid selection and size is always depends what type of data/application is on the volume.

So you may grow your volume as per your requirement of space grows.

While creating the vdisk you may choose the disks across the enclosures and it will provide you a good model of fault tolerant.

BK

[Dave McLeod]

Dear BK,
Please I need your advice regarding the following:


Current configuration:
- Vdisk1 single volume 1.8TB
5 drives is configured with RAID 5 and

-Vdisk 4 volumes 2.2TB
6 drives configured for RAID 5 as well

This volumes are created for VMware datastores and production servers are currently running on them. We would also like to P2V some more servers to the SAN which will require expansion in the near future.

We are considering implementing the following options

Options I
â ¢ Expand the enclosure by installing a new MSA2000 Dual I/O 3.5" 12 Drive Enclosure
â ¢ Create new vdisk group according to HP best practices
â ¢ Migrate some VM to storage area network (SAN) disk.
â ¢ Recreation of the existing virtual disk.
â ¢ Convert more physical servers to virtual and add to the new vdisk group.


Option II
Another option is to leave the current RAID group configuration as it is and implement the following:

â ¢ Installation of a new MSA2000 Dual I/O 3.5" 12 Drive Enclosure
â ¢ Expand virtual disk capacity by adding drives to it from the new enclosure.
â ¢ Expand the volumes. The volume expansion does not require I/O to be quiesced; the volume can continue to be used during the expansion process.

I just discovered that it is possible to expand virtual disk (in the HP-MSA-2212-FC-ref-guide, Expanding Virtual Disk Capacity Page 74). Also, it is possible to expand volumes as well as explained on page 87 Expanding a Volume.

My question is, is it possible to expand a virtual disk by adding disks from different enclosures?


Questions:
Please could you assist with the advantages and disadvantages of both options, recommendations and if there are any workarounds


We also intend to P2V a file server that has 1.2TB disk will grow beyond the VMware 2TB limit (the file server is the reason why the 1.8TB was created)

Do we consider using extents if so what are the caveats (advantages, disadvantages, work arounds etc.)

OR

Create multiple 2TB hard disks inside the VM and convert then into dynamic disks and create a single volume inside Windows 2003 server