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Add drive to existing Array

 
Jason Gaffney
Occasional Advisor

Add drive to existing Array

Hello,

I have an hsg80 controller and would like to add 1 drive to an existing array via the command line interface.

Can anyone tell me the commands for this, or point me to some documentation that explains the procedure?

Thank you.
8 REPLIES 8
djlaube
Occasional Advisor

Re: Add drive to existing Array

Take a peak at the command line reference guide.. its been awhile for the HSG80 so I forget the exact commands off the top of my head. Most likely would be a "set" command..

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/CoreRedirect.jsp?redirectReason=DocIndexPDF&prodSeriesId=1813489&targetPage=http%3A%2F%2Fh20000.www2.hp.com%2Fbc%2Fdocs%2Fsupport%2FSupportManual%2Fc00309747%2Fc00309747.pdf

Sheldon Smith
HPE Pro

Re: Add drive to existing Array

Yeah, it's been a couple years. As I recall...
First you need to figure out where you will insert it, slide the drive in HALF WAY, press the Quiesce button for the shelf on the controller, wait for the normal blinking (drive activity) to pause (takes several seconds -- 10?), slide the drive in and lock it down, and wait for the shelf to resume. Give it a minute.

Then there is a program that is run at the command line. I think it is CONFIG, as in "RUN CONFIG". This scans every shelf on the controller and generates an ADD DISK command for each disk that is physically present but not in the software list. At that point, you are ready to do something with the drive.

Check that Reference Guide to make sure the program *is* CONFIG. You can also "DIR" to see what programs *are* available within the controller.

Note: While I am an HPE Employee, all of my comments (whether noted or not), are my own and are not any official representation of the company

Accept or Kudo

Uwe Zessin
Honored Contributor

Re: Add drive to existing Array

"RUN CONFIG" is correct for recognizing a new disk drive, but:
it is not possible to expand an existing storage set by adding a disk drive to it!

You need to:
- back up all your data
- DELETE the Unit
- DELETE the StorageSet
- sometimes INITIALIZE every disk drive to get rid of meta-data
- create a new, larger StorageSet with the ADD command
- INITIALIZE the new StorageSet
- ADD a new Unit, best with the DISABLE_ACCESS_PATH=ALL switch
- grant access to the servers with
-- set Unit ENABLE_ACCESS_PATH=(connection1, c2,...)
- make the Unit available to the operating system
- restore the data
.
Jason Gaffney
Occasional Advisor

Re: Add drive to existing Array

I can't expand an array with this controller?

That sounds very odd, it's only 4 year old. It's been about 10 years since I seen a controller that couldn't expand an existing array. Isn't that the whole point in having a SAN?
Uwe Zessin
Honored Contributor

Re: Add drive to existing Array

4 years? This technology (HSx) is more than 10 years old!

A SAN is just a transport media for SCSI commands - it has nothing to do with the RAID implementation.

.
Jason Gaffney
Occasional Advisor

Re: Add drive to existing Array

The technology might be, but it was purchased 4 years ago new.

It'll be hard to convince my client this isn't possible for something that is fairly new. Is there documentation for this that I can point them to?
Steven Clementi
Honored Contributor

Re: Add drive to existing Array

The EVA was available 4 years ago if I remember correctly, or at least almost 4 years ago. Your client didn't realize then that they were buying an older generation storage system? Or was the "new" technology not in their price range at the time? I guess it is possible since sometimes, sales people sometimes practice the art of "not informing" customers of what all the options are.

It is also possible that at the time of purchase, the company did not think it would ever have to expand in this way.
I've seen it all too many times.


The simple fact remains that the only way is how it was stated...

or if you have enough Hard Drives and available slots, you can by-pass the backup/restore. Put in new drives, create the unit, present to the host, format and copy the data over. Then you can re-utilize the old drives for something else.

Hmmm, 4 years, perhaps they can get a good deal on a trade in/trade up.

As for docs, the command reference might be ok. The fact that there is no option to "add" a disk to an existing diskset or to "expand" a diskset is proff that it can't be done. (Expanded that is). That, and the backing of all the Storage Engineers here in the ITRC/Business forums, mayb be enough.


Steven
Steven Clementi
HP Master ASE, Storage, Servers, and Clustering
MCSE (NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3)
VCP (ESX2, Vi3, vSphere4, vSphere5, vSphere 6.x)
RHCE
NPP3 (Nutanix Platform Professional)
Jason Gaffney
Occasional Advisor

Re: Add drive to existing Array

Thank you everyone.