HP Smart Array P410i - adding a disk

[LenChaneyEPAERT]

I have the following server setup (the :

Hardware:

DL 360 g7

Storage controller "Smart Array P410i"

3 x 500 RAID 5 array of 6G DP 72K SAS MDL 500GB

Datastore of all the free space of 931.46 GB

VMWare:

ESXi, 4.4.0 348481

I added an identical disk to the server in order to increase the space for the DataStore but I don't see that disk in the VCenter under the Configure tab Storage Adapters.

The activity lights on the newest drive are flickering just like the others.  What do I need to do to add the space.

Thanks,

Len

============= VMWare Summary Report ==============

192.168.1.43 VMware ESXi, 4.1.0, 348481

General
Manufacturer:	HP
Model:	ProLiant DL360 G7
Processors:	12 CPU x 2.666 GHz
Processor Type:	Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5650 @ 2.67GHz
Hyperthreading:	Active
Total Memory:	35.99 GB
Number of NICs:	4
State:	Connected
Virtual Machines:	17
vMotion Enabled:	No
Active Tasks:	No
Resources
CPU Utilization:	11%
Memory Utilization:	93%
Datastores
VirtualMachines:	Capacity: 926.50 GB (130.79 GB free)
Networks
VM Network
VM Network 2

==================================================

Following up on this, I  researched this some more and the issue is that VMWare 4.x and the datastore are on the same RAID volume whereby you won't be able to increase the size of the datastore "normally".

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Re: Can't increase Datastore capacity VMFS 5.54

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Increasing the local datastore on the installation disk is not possible through the GUI and might not be supported. At

http://deinoscloud.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/how-to-increase-the-size-of-a-local-datastore-on-an-esxi...

you can find a walkthrough on how to grow the local datastore on ESXi 4.x With ESXi 5.0 you will need to use "partedUtil resize ..." instead of fdisk (delete an recreate the partition) to modify the partition size though.

For how to use partedUtil, see e.g. http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1036609

==========================

Message was edited by: Len Chaney

[weinstein5]

You can Welcome to the Community - With ESXi 4 you cannot expand a VMFS datastore by adding a drive to increase a RAID set - the only thing you would have been able to do is add the disk by itself add multiple and create a new RAID set and use extents to increase the datastore drive -

[peetz · Accepted solution]

Hi,

if you can afford a longer downtime of the host you can use the following procedure:

1. Boot the server with the "HP ProLiant Offline Array Configuration Utility" boot CD (available here)

2. Run the ACU (Array Configuration Utility) off the CD and expand the RAID5 volume with the newly added disk.

3. Boot the server into ESXi again.

4. Grow the VMFS volume to occupy the newly added space (Choose "Increase..." from the datastore's properties menu.

Before doing any of these steps make sure that you have a recent backup of all your VMs !!!

- Andreas

[LenChaneyEPAERT]

David,

First off, thanks for the rapid response.  I wasn't expecting it soo soon  🙂

Would this be possible in vSphere 5.  It might be a reason for me to push for this upgrade. 

One problem I have is that there are only 4 drive bays useable and only one of those is free so I cannot add redundant storage - unless I add to the current RAID container.  The server was ordered with a DVD drive and that limits the server to only 4 bays rather than the full 8 that are generally available in the DL 360.

I essentially wanted to know if I had to down the server or could do it while the VMWare host was up.  It looks like I cannot do it when the server is up. 

Can I down the server and add the disk to the RAID array, bring the server back up, and expand the datastore?

Thanks,

Len

[weinstein5]

Yes with vSphere 5 you can grow the VMFS datastore - it is one of the new features of the VMFS 5 -it will require downtime of you server to add the storage because you have to go into the BIOS of the RAID controller to expand the RAID set -

[peetz]

Sorry, this is wrong information.

Datastore growing was introduced with vSphere 4.0 already (Search for "vStorage" in the What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0 document).

Also, you can not expand a RAID volume in the Smart Array BIOS menu, you need to use the Offline ACU to do this.

- Andreas

[AlexJoda]

I am wondering that there is still no online Array Configuration Tool (ACU) available for the HP SmartArray controllers within a running ESXi VM. This is absolutely essential for a professional administration of a runnig ESXi server ! HP is one of the big "supporters" for VSphere servers, so this is hard to believe.

It looks like the only controllers for doing this are LSI Megaraid, the newer Adaptec controllers (did not try them, maybe somebody can confirm) and Areca controllers with their inbuild LAN connector. But with the Areca controllers we have heavy consistancy problems migrating from ESXi 4.1 to 5.0 so I would not recommend them....