P420i add Parity Group.

[tcsweden]

Hi!

Two quick questions. Long time since I did some real hardware configuration. Anyway.

Current configuration:

=> ctrl all show config detail

Smart Array P420i in Slot 0 (Embedded)
Bus Interface: PCI
Slot: 0
Serial Number: asdf
Cache Serial Number: asdf
RAID 6 (ADG) Status: Disabled
Controller Status: OK
Hardware Revision: B
Firmware Version: 3.42
Rebuild Priority: Medium
Expand Priority: Medium
Surface Scan Delay: 15 secs
Surface Scan Mode: Idle
Queue Depth: Automatic
Monitor and Performance Delay: 60 min
Elevator Sort: Enabled
Degraded Performance Optimization: Disabled
Inconsistency Repair Policy: Disabled
Wait for Cache Room: Disabled
Surface Analysis Inconsistency Notification: Disabled
Post Prompt Timeout: 0 secs
Cache Board Present: True
Cache Status: OK
Cache Ratio: 10% Read / 90% Write
Drive Write Cache: Disabled
Total Cache Size: 2.0 GB
Total Cache Memory Available: 1.8 GB
No-Battery Write Cache: Disabled
SSD Caching RAID5 WriteBack Enabled: False
SSD Caching Version: 1
Cache Backup Power Source: Capacitors
Battery/Capacitor Count: 1
Battery/Capacitor Status: OK
SATA NCQ Supported: True
Spare Activation Mode: Activate on physical drive failure (default)
Controller Temperature (C): 56
Cache Module Temperature (C): 36
Capacitor Temperature (C): 26
Number of Ports: 2 Internal only
Encryption Supported: False
Driver Name: hpsa
Driver Version: 3.4.0
Driver Supports HP SSD Smart Path: False

Gen8 ServBP 25+2

Array: B
Interface Type: SAS
Unused Space: 0 MB
Status: OK
Array Type: Data

Logical Drive: 2
Size: 5.5 TB
Fault Tolerance: 50
Number of Parity Groups: 2
Heads: 255
Sectors Per Track: 32
Cylinders: 65535
Strip Size: 256 KB
Full Stripe Size: 1280 KB
Status: OK
Caching: Enabled
Parity Initialization Status: Initialization Completed
Unique Identifier: 600508B1001C936266282EAA2FE797D9
Disk Name: /dev/sdb Mount Points: None
Logical Drive Label: A2B86A395001438026263570 F7FA
Parity Group 0:
physicaldrive 1I:1:4 (port 1I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:6 (port 1I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:8 (port 1I:box 1:bay 8, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:10 (port 1I:box 1:bay 10, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:12 (port 1I:box 1:bay 12, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 2I:1:14 (port 2I:box 1:bay 14, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
Parity Group 1:
physicaldrive 1I:1:3 (port 1I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:5 (port 1I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:7 (port 1I:box 1:bay 7, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:9 (port 1I:box 1:bay 9, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:11 (port 1I:box 1:bay 11, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:13 (port 1I:box 1:bay 13, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
Drive Type: Data
LD Acceleration Method: Controller Cache

Question 1.

Given the following current configuration, is it possible to expand Array B with another identical 6 drives in Raid 5 and add them to the raid50 array? Effectivly expanding the array?

Question 2.

I know that having to many disks in raid5 is not good. But adding one or maybe two 600GB disk to each "Parity Group", can the entire array be expanded with the P420i?

Thanks!

/Henrik

P.S This thread has been moved from ProLiant Storage Systems to ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL). - Hp Forum Moderator

[Zsal · Accepted solution]

Array: B
Fault Tolerance: 50
Total Cache Size: 2.0 GB
Firmware Version: 3.42

RAID 50: Supported with a minimum of 6 drives. This volume is composed of two or more RAID 5 sub-volumes (parity groups) where data is striped across each parity group as if it were a single physical drive. Each RAID 5 parity group can sustain a single drive failure without incurring data loss.

Question 1 - Yes, it is possible but depends on server internal storage capacity.

Question 2 - Yes, it can be expanded. Also recommended to update the firmware for P420i to version 6 which is the latest

Hope this helps!
Regards
Zsal

[tcsweden]

Thank you!

[tcsweden]

Ok, just to make sure (having difficulties finding this procedure in docs).

I do now have some unassigned drives.

=> ctrl slot=0 pd all show

Smart Array P420i in Slot 0 (Embedded)

   array A

      physicaldrive 1I:1:1 (port 1I:box 1:bay 1, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:2 (port 1I:box 1:bay 2, SAS, 146 GB, OK)

   array B

      physicaldrive 1I:1:3 (port 1I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:4 (port 1I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:5 (port 1I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:6 (port 1I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:7 (port 1I:box 1:bay 7, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:8 (port 1I:box 1:bay 8, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:9 (port 1I:box 1:bay 9, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:10 (port 1I:box 1:bay 10, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:11 (port 1I:box 1:bay 11, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:12 (port 1I:box 1:bay 12, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:13 (port 1I:box 1:bay 13, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:14 (port 2I:box 1:bay 14, SAS, 600 GB, OK)

   unassigned

      physicaldrive 2I:1:15 (port 2I:box 1:bay 15, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:16 (port 2I:box 1:bay 16, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:17 (port 2I:box 1:bay 17, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:18 (port 2I:box 1:bay 18, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:19 (port 2I:box 1:bay 19, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:20 (port 2I:box 1:bay 20, SAS, 600 GB, OK)

As I previously stated, I wanted to expand Array B (below) with another parity group consisting of these 6 new drives.

=> ctrl slot=0 ld 2 show

Smart Array P420i in Slot 0 (Embedded)

   array B

      Logical Drive: 2
         Size: 5.5 TB
         Fault Tolerance: RAID 50
         Number of Parity Groups: 2
         Heads: 255
         Sectors Per Track: 32
         Cylinders: 65535
         Strip Size: 256 KB
         Full Stripe Size: 1280 KB
         Status: OK
         Caching:  Enabled
         Parity Initialization Status: Initialization Completed
         Unique Identifier: 600508B1001C936266282EAA2FE797D9
         Disk Name: /dev/sdb
         Mount Points: None
         Logical Drive Label: A2B86A395001438026263570
F7FA
         Parity Group 0:
            physicaldrive 1I:1:4 (port 1I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
            physicaldrive 1I:1:6 (port 1I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
            physicaldrive 1I:1:8 (port 1I:box 1:bay 8, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
            physicaldrive 1I:1:10 (port 1I:box 1:bay 10, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
            physicaldrive 1I:1:12 (port 1I:box 1:bay 12, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
            physicaldrive 2I:1:14 (port 2I:box 1:bay 14, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
         Parity Group 1:
            physicaldrive 1I:1:3 (port 1I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
            physicaldrive 1I:1:5 (port 1I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
            physicaldrive 1I:1:7 (port 1I:box 1:bay 7, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
            physicaldrive 1I:1:9 (port 1I:box 1:bay 9, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
            physicaldrive 1I:1:11 (port 1I:box 1:bay 11, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
            physicaldrive 1I:1:13 (port 1I:box 1:bay 13, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
         Drive Type: Data

From what I can work out from help, the following command would add another (third) parity group with these 6 unassigned drives in raid5, to expand the raid50:

controller slot=0 array B add drives=2I:1:15,2I:1:16,2I:1:17,2I:1:18,2I:1:19,2I:1:20 modifyparitygroups=yes

I tried doing this over the hpssa/smh gui, but I do not find any way of making sure it will not add three drives to each parity group instead of what I want.

Thank you for all help!

EDIT: What exactly does "modifyparitygroups=yes" mean? I can not find answer to that anywhwere. Does it modify layout/configuration of existing parity groups, or does it allow modification of nr of parity groups?

EDIT2: Ok, could not wait any longer, above cmd did exactly what I wanted:

Logical Drive: 2
Size: 5.5 TB
Fault Tolerance: 50
Number of Parity Groups: 3
Heads: 255
Sectors Per Track: 32
Cylinders: 65535
Strip Size: 256 KB
Full Stripe Size: 1280 KB
Status: Transforming, 1% complete
Caching: Enabled
Parity Initialization Status: In Progress
Unique Identifier: 600508B1001C936266282EAA2FE797D9
Disk Name: /dev/sdb Mount Points: None
Logical Drive Label: A2B86A395001438026263570 F7FA
Parity Group 0:
physicaldrive 2I:1:14 (port 2I:box 1:bay 14, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 2I:1:15 (port 2I:box 1:bay 15, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 2I:1:16 (port 2I:box 1:bay 16, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 2I:1:17 (port 2I:box 1:bay 17, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 2I:1:18 (port 2I:box 1:bay 18, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 2I:1:19 (port 2I:box 1:bay 19, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
Parity Group 1:
physicaldrive 1I:1:3 (port 1I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:4 (port 1I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:5 (port 1I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:6 (port 1I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:7 (port 1I:box 1:bay 7, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 2I:1:20 (port 2I:box 1:bay 20, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
Parity Group 2:
physicaldrive 1I:1:8 (port 1I:box 1:bay 8, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:9 (port 1I:box 1:bay 9, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:10 (port 1I:box 1:bay 10, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:11 (port 1I:box 1:bay 11, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:12 (port 1I:box 1:bay 12, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:13 (port 1I:box 1:bay 13, SAS, 600 GB, OK)
Drive Type: Data
LD Acceleration Method: Controller Cache

/Henrik