Expand virtual disk size on MSA2012sa

[Pvlier]

We have a customer with an MSA2012sa. One of the arrays was with 3x 146gb sas disk, with a raid 5 configuration on it, so we had a volume on it with about 292GB of dataspace (2/3 of 3x146GB in raid 5).

The clients wanted more space for the server on this array. As the other slots were full we replaces the 146GB disks by 450GB disks by replacing each disk and letting it rebuild before replacing the next disk.

So now the volume should be resized to 900GB (2/3 of 3x450GB in raid 5). It shows all room is occupied so I guess I have to resize the virtual disk first to add free space on the physical disks but I can't seem to find the option to resize the virtual disk.

So in short: how do I resize a virtual disk when it hasn't taken all the space of the physical drives?

Current Storage Controller Code Version J300P13 
Current Storage Controller Loader Code Version 15.010 
Current Memory Controller FPGA Code Version F300R22 
Current Management Controller Code Version W430R31 
Current Management Controller Loader Code Version 12.013 
Current Expander Controller Code Version 3022 
Current CPLD Version 27 

[Sudhakar Subramaniam]

Hi ,

You need to do it through SMU.

In the below link check for provisioning the storage .

http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01756042/c01756042.pdf

Regards

Sudhakar

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[Pvlier]

Hi Sudhakar,

thank you for your reply.

I've read the manual but I cannot see how I can expand the virtual disk without adding disks. I can expand by adding a disk. There's also only the webinterface as the 2012sa doesn't have standalone management tools that I am aware of.

The option of creating a backup, deleting the vdisk, creating a full size new vdisk and volume and restoring from backup is a last resort as it will take a lot of time and downtime is something the customer doesn't want.

[Torsten.]

IMHO the better interface is the CLI. Connect to the MSA via telnet or ssh.

First check the vdisk:

CLI> show vdisks

Does it show the "new" size?

(I'm not sure if the array can use the additional space on a bigger spare drive ...)

[Pvlier]

Hi Torsten,

is shows the size it was created as (293,5 GB). I have to resize the virtual disk to occupy the max array space without adding disks.

So it was:

[293.5GB                          ] VOLUME

[293.5GB                          ] VDISK

[146GB][146GB][146GB] 3 Phydical disks in raid 5

Now it is:

[293.5GB                          ] VOLUME

[293.5GB                          ] VDISK

[450GB][450GB][450GB] 3 Phydical disks in raid 5

It should be:

[900GB                             ] VOLUME

[900GB                             ] VDISK

[450GB][450GB][450GB] 3 Phydical disks in raid 5

[Torsten.]

So I think replacing the disks with larger disks did not work as you want - it really just replaces the disk and uses the same original capacity. Re-creating the vdisk is probably the only way.

[Pvlier]

That's correct. The disk were replaced but the virtual disk did not expand to the full possible capacity of the array.

Anyone who knows for sure if that is possible?

[Torsten.]

The manual is not claer at this point, it only says "use same capacity or larger drives as spares" - but it also says "vdisks can be expanded to new disks ..." - IMHO you should not expect "smartarray behaviour" ... :-(