Add nodes to exisiting cluster or a new cluster?

[BJØRN ODDVAR NILSSEN]

We have a cluster that contains 4 P4300 running software 10.0.00.1888.0

We are now running out of space and must add two nodes P4300 with software 10.0.00.1896.0 preinstalled

What is the best practice?  Adding them to the exisiting cluster or create a new cluster.

If we are adding them to existing cluster, how long will it take to restripe den volumes?

[oikjn]

the answer to both questions are "it depends".

If you just need more total space, you should add them to the existing cluster so your total storage pool is increased.  If you need hard performance isolation then make it its own cluster.  99% of the time, you are just adding the nodes to the existing cluster.

How long the process takes depends on a number of factors... LUN capacity, current LUN activity, specified management group bandwidth...  Depending on your priority, if you need the sapce ASAP, you are going to have to speed up the restripe process which pay affect production performance, but if you don't need the space quickly, you can always turn down the management group bandwidth so the performance impact isn't noticed at all  If I was doing this and you don't have an immediate need for the space, I would just turn the management group bandwidth down to 1MB/s, add the new nodes, and then slowly increase the managment group bandwidth until I start seeing it affect performance and then turn it back down a little under that.  That would get you restriped as quickly as possible, but not bother production at all.