Cannot expand an array on an MSA1000

[Aaron W Hersey]

Our MSA1000 has two arrays Array A and Array B. We started with Array A and added extra hard drives and i expanded the array just fine when i added the new disks. Then we got some other disks and created array b. we added some more disks but it will not give me the option to expand Array A anymore, only array b. I've looked everywhere for a soultion and haven't found one.

[Jefferson Humber]

Aaron,

What are the disk sizes ? How are the disks spread across the arrays ? Do you have LUN's created on each array ? What firmware you running on the MSA ?

Jeff

[otto warlich]

Hello Aaron,

If there is an expandtion running on the MSA the next expandtion is not possible. You have to wait till it's finished.

The last firmware and last ACU will also help.
We've got similar problems, but after upgrading the acu to the last version it is possible to expand.

With regards,

Otto

[Aaron W Hersey]

We just upgraded to the latest firmware over the weekend and the latest ACU whihc is 7.4 i think. But still no luck. we don't have any expansions going on so i'm stumped. When we first brought up the servers we had 3 142 gig drives in a raid 5 configuration in bays 1-3. Then we expanded that to bays 4 and 5. we have several logical diska on the raid 5 part of the array. Later on we bought several 70 gig drives and created an array in bays 8-13 leaving bays 6 and 7 open. we have several logical drives on the new array in bays 8-13. now we placed two 142 gig drives in bays 6 and 7 and when i try and expand the first array it won't give me the option but will allow me to expand the second array.

[John Kufrovich]

Hey Aaron, I'll give your problem a look over in the lab. Are you using the imbedded shelf or a MSA30.

[Aaron W Hersey]

not sure what you mean by embedded shelf. we are using the MSA1000

[John Kufrovich]

Have you attached any MSA30 shelves to your MSA1000.

[John Kufrovich]

Have you tried expanding using the cli? If you get an error let me know.

[Aaron W Hersey]

our MSA1000 is stand alone, we haven't connected anything else to it.

[John Kufrovich]

I was not able to duplicate your problem. Everything worked fine.

Can you provide more information.
Before you expanded Array A. How many Logical Drives did you create from Array A and what size. Was it 1 Raid 5 Logical drive using all available space.

Are you able to try the MSA cli.

[Aaron W Hersey]

we have a total of 15 logical drives on the array we are trying to expand. when we were able to expand it we had maybe 4 or 5. we are mainly tryig to expand it to give the existing logical drives drives more space. what is the cli? I'm not real familiar with disk arrays

[John Kufrovich]

The cli port is located on the controller. If you have the supplied serial cable you can attach it to this port and use hyperterm or any other terminal emulator to access the controller. The black cable will have a db9 connector on one end and a keyed RJ45 connector. The terminal settings are on the db9 end of the cable.

[John Kufrovich]

If you want to increase the size of the existing Logical drives. If no space is available add (Expand) with a new drive. (Which you did). Once the Array Expansion is complete. (Extend) Then select the Logical drive you want to increase in size and select extend size. When extending the size, ACU reports the current Logical drive size, you need to provide the new size, not how much you need to increase it by.

[Aaron W Hersey]

it won't let me expand the array with the new drives. we are out of freespace on the array to etend the logical drive, thats why we want to expand the array. it let us expand the array with new drives once before we created the second array

[John Kufrovich]

When you select Array A in ACU. Do you get the Expand command?

[Aaron W Hersey]

no, i get the create logical drive command but not the expand array command. When i select array b i get the expand array command though. just in case it matters we have a spare drive in bay 14.

[John Kufrovich]

Can you provide a screen capture.

I can't seem to duplicate your problem.
Here is my configuration,
Array A - 5 (146 G) drives.
15 - logical drives.

Array B - 5 (72G) drives
1-logical drive