Logical drive extension not viewed by nss device object

[lmoriggi]

Hi,
I added an additionnal drive in a RAID 5 logical drive (Compaq MSA1000 logical drive expansion).
NSS (NSSMU) still shows the device object with the property "Capacity" with the old value (before adding the drive).
The MSA1000 User's Guide says it is possible if the OS supports the feature.
Is there a way to make NSS aware of the change ?

Best Regards, Laurent.

 

[marvhuffaker]

When you put the new drive in, did you go into the Array Manager Utility and expand the array to include the new drive, and then add a logical drive to the new space?

Marvin Huffaker MCNE, CNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[lmoriggi]

Hi,
The new drive has been added to the existing logical drive, by using the expanding function of the array configuration utility.
I don't want to create a new logical drive, I want to extend the existing one, because I have a RAID 5 logical drive with 4 drives of 148GB and I just want to add 1 drive of 148 GB to it.
The expansion with the Compaq MSA1000 Array Configuration Utility is OK (the logical drive contains now 5 drives of 148 GB), but Netware 6 (NSSMU) still shows the old capacitiy for the device (440 GB instead of 590 GB).
My question is : is there a way to make NSS aware of the new size of the logical drive ?

Best Regards, Laurent.

 

[marvhuffaker]

Last time I expanded a Compaq array (which was the other day), it will expand the RAID 5 onto the new drive, but you still have to create a new logical drive to utilize the new space. The reason you aren't seeing the new space inside NSSMU is because you haven't created a new logical drive.

Note that since you do in fact have to create a new logical drive, it will appear as a separate device in NSSMU. Just expand the POOL to utilize the space on the new logical drive and it will become available to any volumes within the pool.

As far as the RAID 5, don't worry about that.. The RAID will still be striped across all drives like you want, but there is not a way to actually "Expand" the logical drive on to the new space -- at least not that I am aware of.

Terry is a big compaq user and can probably confirm this as well.



Marvin Huffaker MCNE, CNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[lmoriggi]

I understand what you mean, but no way with NSSMU to find a new device (SCAN FOR NEW DEVICE), or create a new partition, or create a new POOL, or expand an existing POOL.

Because the additionnal drive has been added as part of the existing (wanted) logical drive on the MSA1000, and not as a new (not wanted) logical drive. The term "logical drive" is from the MSA100 point of view, and is in my case 5 physical drives grouped with the RAID 5 technology.
Since it is the same MSA1000 logical drive, NSS still sees one device, but with the size not updated.
Is it possible to update the size, with no device initialization ?

 

[terry712]

i'm not up the msa devices - well not until wednesday - when i will be putting on it

normally as said above - you would put drive in
nothing will see it

then either through the browser or my preferred cpqonlin
you expand the array - this means you should see the drive at a hardware level

then as said above you should see the physical disk in console1 or whatever but you cant use it until you create it logically and then expand the pool

as i said i'm not in front of a server just now and it's amazing hard to describe this when if you wer in front of it - it comes very natural - i am using an msa later on this week so i can physically try this if you want

 

[lmoriggi]

Thanks to all of you, but after some inquiries I got the key of it.
When adding an additionnal drive to an existing RAID 5 array, they are 2 possibles ways :
1. Create a new Logical Drive with the physical drive. In this scenario NSS sees a new device that can be used as you like.
2. Expand an existing Logical Drive. In this scenario (wich I did), no way to make NSS aware of the extend without an initialization of the device (requires a remove and a retore of the data).
Bye.

 

[wonsie]

We have a netware 6.5 server with a mirrored VOL1 drive. And it is running
low on disk space. We would like to expand this to two more drives which
would also be mirrored, but can't seem to get this to work. Is this
possible? Or do we need to create NSS volumes??

 

[terry712]

nss is preferred especially with 6.x

when you say mirrored - hardware or the nasty software one.
if it's raid one and it's hardware then you cant as a mirror can only have 2 disks - you would either have to add another raid 1 or add 3 disks as a raid 5 and move you data to it
if it's software then you would have to break the mirror and the disks and then fumble - but software isnt a good solution