You can resize EVA LUN on HP-UX when using VxVM 4.1

[Adam Garsha]

I've posted several inquiries in the past asking in different ways about the possibility of expanding a LUN at the EVA level and then pushing that change up the stack (when using HP-UX) to increase a filesystem's size.

On Tru64 there is a process for this. On windows there is a process for this. And now I have verified that it works on HP-UX (I've also verified with support that it is supported )

If you are using one of the many new "storage management" add-ons for 11.23 (aka the veritas stuff), you can do this:

1. increase size of vdisk at the EVA level via commandview or sssu
2. ioscan -funC disk
# Note: diskinfo will still report the old size
3. vxdisk -g DGNAME resize VRTSDISKNAME
# Note: diskinfo will now report the new size
4. vxprint -g DGNAME VRTSDISKNAME
5. vxresize -g DGNAME VOLNAME SIZE VRTSDISKNAME
6. bdf

When managing both EVA-based SAN and UNIX... this alone makes VRTS an essential add-on for HP-UX (IMHO).

[Alzhy]

I've yet to try this (we won't have an 11.23 sandbox until January) BUT I've heard that this is now indeed true!

VxVM/VxFS 4.1 now supports online LUN expansion... Very beneficial indeed for EVA shops!

[Adam Garsha]

Yes it rocks. I've yet to try it with a mirrored volume. and a mirrored cluster filesystem volume. and a mirrored cluster filesystem volume that has been "prepared" for snapshots... but I will.

Kudos to the folks who have integraded VRTS and SG. Everything works well so far in my testing out of the box (after patching of course).

cfscluster, cfsmntadm, cfsmount/umount... all pretty slick and painless.

[Adam Garsha]

DMP rocks also. (so far).

No I don't work for Veritas. I am just happy that everything is working so flawlessly.

[Adam Garsha]

Apparently, you shouldn't use vxresize. You should use a two step procedure:

Growing a Cluster File System

There is a master node for CVM as well as a primary for CFS. When growing a file system, you grow the volume from the CVM master, and then grow the file system from the CFS primary. The CVM master and the CFS primary can be two different nodes. To determine the primary file system in a cluster, enter:
# fsclustadm -v showprimary mount_point

To determine if the current node is the master CVM node, enter:
# vxdctl -c mode

To actually increase the size of the file system, run the following two commands. On the master CVM node, enter:

# vxassist -g shared_disk_group growto volume_name newlength

On the CFS primary, enter:
# fsadm -F vxfs -b newsize -r device_name mount_point

vxresize worked most of the time for me... but the one time it didn't, it was bad. There should be some kind of warning on the man page says I.

[avik · Accepted solution]

online lun resizing was supported in veritas volume manager even before if you had bought it directly from eritas/symantevc.

[Adam Garsha]

That may be. Thanks.

I'd love to just have a VRTS stack (i.e. CVM and VCS vs. CVM and SG), but single vendor support beats working with two vendors any day of the week.

To be frank :), I'd rather have AdvFS and CFS and SI, but I can't upgrade to Tru64 :)

Take it easy folks... just kidding.

[hrastnik]

Hi,

I try to do exactly the same thing but the vxdisk command asks for veritas license.
My question is: Do I need extra veritas license or it is just enough to have baseVxVM V4.1 product installed to do online LUN resizing.
In HPUX 11i v2 release notes is note:

"Base VxVM 4.1 (included in HP-UX 11i
Foundation OE at no additional cost) provides many volume manager features and benefits such as:
.....
Dynamic LUN expansion for improved manageability and minimize downtime
......
"


Best regards,

Denis Hrastnik

[gbruner]

hi. do i understand corretly that you cannot resize eva lun using this method if you are using lvm instead of vxvm

[Adam Garsha]

That is correct. LVM does not support online resize of a LUN in 11.11 and 11.23.

I think it is supported in 11.31, but I am not sure yet.

[Torsten.]

Hi,

11.31 is supporting this,
see
man vgmodify

"The detection of physical volume size changes (LUN size expansion or contraction) is automatic, with the handling taking place unless the -r or -t options have been used."

http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-60130/vgmodify.1M.html

[Fayez]

Hi all,
Ok so how it done with hp-ux 11.11 using LVM??
thanks...

[Torsten.]

Hi Fayez,

for 11.11 backup your data, remove the PV from your configuration, pvcreate it again.