Problem to add HDD

[homayoun567]

hello
I have a problem with MSA 1050 HPE. Currently, I am in the POOL A and I have 1 disk group and 5 hard disks. I want to add a new hard drive. In the POOL section, I click on the Action button and select the item ADD new Disk Group. I choose POOL A and RAID 5. I see the added hard disk and select it. I have no error, but the ADD button is Disable. what should i do?

[JonPaul]

@homayoun567 
MSA 1050/2050 must have a full disk-group to expand the capacity. Incremental (single drive) expansion is not possible.
Please review:
MSA Gen5 Virtual Storage Technical Guide:  https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/a00087404enw
MSA 1050/2050 Best Practices Guide:  https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/a00015961enw
It sounds like you are selecting a single drive and wanting it to expand into the existing disk-group.  You need at least 3 drives for RAID 5 and the recommendation would be to match the existing disk-group capacity and number of disks.

[homayoun567]

Hello
Thanks for your reply
I currently have a diskgroup with 5 RَAID5 hard drives. I cannot add hard
drives to the current disk group. So I tried to create a new disk group
with RAID 1. But I still have the problem of the add button being inactive

[JonPaul]

@homayoun567 
Is the system healthy?
RAID 1 requires 2 drives to be selected.  

Can you share an image of the SMU in the condition?

[homayoun567]

Hello again

I sent you some images from Management web panel and some description

please guide me to solve this problem

Previously, there was another HDD in slot number 6 that was active, but it was failed and its light turned orange. I put the new HDD in the same slot, but its lights are not on. I think this new HDD should be activated in the same DISK GROUP as the previous one. However, I tried to define another DISK GROUP and set it as a new DISK GROUP, which failed.

Also, the 5 existing HDDs work properly and have no problems

Thanks a lot

[JonPaul]

@homayoun567 
Thanks for all the information. This is really confirmed what I suspected and showed the detail.
First,  your RAID 5 disk-group is in FTOL (Fault Tolerant) status.  This means that the disk-group can survive the loss of 1 drive without data loss.

This also confirms that the disk-group is in the best practice "Power of 2" (Po2).  Which will avoid a performance degradation with sequential WRITE workloads.

If the previous disk in slot 6 was part of the disk-group and faulted, it's data was reconstructed/rebuilt onto another drive which was a SPARE in the system.

Unless you are looking to expand your Pool and number or capacity of volumes, the only thing you need to do is validate that the AVAIL drive (in slot 6) is set to be a spare in case of another drive fault.
You can either make it a spare:  Select the "Pools" topic(Left side),  click "Action" button and "Manage Spares".  Select drive in slot 6 and "Add Spares".  This makes the drive a Global Spare which will be used by the Disk-group in case of a drive fault.
Or in the CLI,  'show advanced-settings'  and check the 'Dynamic Sparing' setting.  If it is enabled then the AVAIL drive will be pulled into the disk-group in the case of a drive fault.

I would also recommend updating your system firmware.  Your Version:  VE270R001,  Current:  VE270P008
And running the MSA HealthCheck:  https://www.hpe.com/storage/MSAHealthCheck
Health Check will validate all firmware versions and will check the system against other Best Practices, such as Dynamic Sparing enabled.
Direct links to firmware can be found here:  https://www.hpe.com/storage/MSAFirmware

If you want more indepth review of what happened on the system with the disk in slot 6, you will need to review the logs or connect with support to help review the logs.

[homayoun567]

Thanks for your response ,
I want to add a new disk because I don't have enough storage space. If I do
as you described, will the new disk increase the storage space? And the
storage function will not suffer after the space of 5 available disks is
completed?
Thanks a lot

[JonPaul]

@homayoun567 
Unfortunately you can not increase the capacity of a disk-group in the MSA Gen5.  The only option for expansion is to create a completely new disk-group. 

The best practice would be to create a new RAID 5 with Five 2.4TB drives.  This would double your usable capacity.

Going back to my first response, the Best Practices guide and Virtual Storage Technical Guide have information on the best options and limitations.

[homayoun567]

Hello
Can I create a disk group with 3 disks with RAID5?

[JonPaul]

@homayoun567 
Yes a different configuration of disk-group can be created but is not a best practice.
The data existing on the system will be balanced between the disk-groups with an even capacity eventually being on each disk-group. i.e. the 3 drive RAID 5 would be more full (percentage) than the 5 drive disk-group.
Additionally the 3 drive disk-group will have lesser performance than the 5 drive disk-group.  This could lead to non-consistent performance.

[homayoun567]

Hello Thanks But currently the employer is not available to buy more disks. So, I am reluctant to use 3 disks to create a Reed 5 group disk. Does creating it with 3 disks continue the current routine for storage? Do I then need to make changes to the current storage settings of the virtual machines?

[homayoun567]

of course "RAID5" :))

[JonPaul]

@homayoun567 
Expanding the Pool is only 1 step in your eventual process.
Yes you can expand the pool by adding a 3 drive RAID 5 to the same pool as the first disk group.
This will expand the available capacity in the Pool.

Then the next step is either creating a new volumes and presenting it to the host or expanding the existing volume and having the host recognize the expanded capacity (This requires host actions, typically not hard but may require a downtime and needs to be investigated from the Host OS perspective)

[homayoun567]

@JonPaul 

Thank you for your answer and I apologize for asking so many questions.
This group of 3 disks is not the first disk group, but the second disk
group. As I understood from your answer, it is enough to create this disk
group and the storage starts normally and according to the procedure on the
second disk group after the first disk group is filled. Am I right?

[JonPaul]

@homayoun567 
I think there are some nuances that you are missing.  It would be helpful to have a clear understanding of the virtual storage features of the MSA.  This can be found in the MSA Gen6 Virtual Storage Technical guide (link above, somewhere).
You need to understand your end-to-end plan or you will either end up not where you want to be or end up taking more time to re-do a step.
You need to know:
How do you want to expand the volumes on the host?   An expanded volume or an additional volume
   How does your OS handle each case?   
   How does the OS expand the file system?
   How do you create a new data store?
Then you can determine if you add the new 3 drive disk-group into the existing Pool  or  if you create a new pool.  (Only 2 pools can be created on the MSA systems.
There are multiple steps to getting additional storage to your host please understand your steps before taking the first one to avoid any undesireable outcomes.

[homayoun567]

Hello

I prepared 5 hard disks and created a new disk group and it worked without any problems. Currently I have two disk groups in Pool A and the management page shows that the 5 new disks have been created correctly. But the storage volume has not increased yet and shows the same amount as before. I searched the internet and saw that I need to make some settings in the volumes section. Please tell me step by step what settings I need to make in the volumes section to increase the current volume to a new value. I have added 5 hard disks of 2.4 TB. I want the new volume to be the same as the previous volume plus the volume of the new hard disks.

Thanks a lot

[homayoun567]

The current amount of storage space is 30 GB and should be 9.6 plus 30 GB.

[JonPaul]

@homayoun567 
The basic steps are:
  1. Expand the Pool
  2. Expand the Volume
  3. Update the OS to discover the new capacity of the volume
  4. Expand the file system in the new space on the volume

You have gotten past the first step.  The second step can be done in the SMU or the CLI.  
I would recommend creating a new smal1 volume (50GB) and then expand that just to practice. Sometimes it is a bit confusing.

Step 3 and Step 4 are dependent on your OS and would be outside the scope of this forum.

Another option would be to present a new volume and use that within the OS to 'offload' the original volume.  At the end you would have some of your data on the first volume and some on a second volume.

[homayoun567]

Hello

I added 5 new disks. I added a new disk group in the same pool and put the new disks in it. Both the old and new disk groups are raid5. I had 3 volumes in the volume section, which I successfully increased their capacity through the action button and modify volume without changing the name of the previous volumes. Then in VMWare I clicked on the storage section and performed a Rescan all. But the volume capacity does not increase. Please advise.

[homayoun567]