To add to existing cluster or start a new one?

[Cajuntank MS]

I purchased a 2.4TB G1 (I assume) node almost 2 years ago. Could not afford the "starter SAN" at the time and had thoughts of just adding another node in the future. The future arrived and got a great deal on a 7.2TB G2 starter SAN. I know if I add this two node bundle to my existing cluster (of one node), that I will lose usable space. So what would be better, losing a little bit of space for now and have 1 cluster or have 2 clusters and replicate between the two?

[Buenaventura Acera]

I would recommend to configure two clusters and replicate between them.

If you join all nodes on the same cluster you are going to loose too many space but, if this isn't a problem for you, putting them all nodes in the same cluster will allow you te get greater fault tolerance configuring Network raid 10 for the volumes (using more space of course). You can also use this configuration only on the new two nodes cluster.

Other recommendation, configure each node to run a manager to increase also the node's availability (votes=3, quorum=2).

[Cajuntank MS]

So just to update what I did. I added both 3.6TB nodes to my 2.4TB node cluster. I know I sacrificed some space, but my main usage for this cluster anyway is for VHD's of my O.S. installs. I will establish a whole other cluster for the 16TB "Starter SAN" I bought (this will house my data volumes). Updated my new nodes to v9 of the software, started all the managers running. It only took about 3 hours to restripe the the cluster with the new nodes's space and I've already set my volumes at RAID10 for redundancy.

[Jitun]

I personally would have preferred separating the G1 and G2 units into 2 different clusters.

One does have an option to move volumes between Clusters in the same Management Group.

That way you wouldn't have lost out on space as well.

[Cajuntank MS]

I know... I talked in length about it with HP LeftHand tech support. In the end, I was more comfortable going this route and the loss in space is not an issue right now. I always can back those nodes out (assuming I have enough space for my data) in the future.

[Cajuntank MS]

Closed