Hot extend Array with VMware ESXi 4.x

[damien.schmitt]

Hi,

Is there a way to hot extend a RAID 5 array without shuting down a VMware ESXi 4 server ?

Thanks.

Damien.

[Jan Soska]

Hello,
it may depend on more factors...
1) what is your storage? Are you able to expand disk online?
2) if yes, you can expand fmfs datastore under gui - I did it under ESX4, check my thread here: http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1446056

Jan

[damien.schmitt]

On local P400 array only. Quite easy on SAN.

[Jan Soska]

hello,
I have never tried expand raid5 on smartarrays, but did it with raid1. I think this should work.
Let's check manual pages for P400 (user guide?) - should be described. http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual〈=en&cc=us&docIndexId=64179&taskId=101&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=1157687

Jan

[Jan Soska]

ahh, I forgot to mention - it is a must to have battery backuped cache on p400 - if you want do online operations...

Jan