Expanding Storage on HP DL 380 6i RAID Controller

[hells_mels]

We have a couple of HP DL 380's, running VI3. They are configured with mirrored 72 GB disks prior to the installation of VI3.

We would like to add some additional local storage to each of the boxes in the way of 4 disks in a RAID 5 array.

The HP 6i controller supports this configuration and the drives are hot swappable, but what I'd like to know is do I have to down the server, add the storage and configure the array using the 6i utility or is there a way of leaving the ESX server running and doing all this through vmtools or another utility.

You are able to add and configure storage on NetWare and Windows boxes and I'd be very surprised if you actually had to down the ESX box to do this, but I just don't know how to!

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Regards,

Mel

[conradsia]

sounds like you want to go from raid1 to raid 5, that will require a re-config of the array and the server will need to go down for that. Adding additional disks to an existing array shouldnt require downtime.

[VirtualNoitall]

Hey,

If you have a BBWC you should be able to do a live migration from one RAID type to another. We have done this a number of times without incident. the BBWC is a prereq though so if you don't have one it is not an option.

[hells_mels]

Thanks for the advice given so far - it is appreciated.

The HP RAID Controller supports both RAID1 and RAID5 simultaneously.

We want to retain our existing mirrored array and add a new RAID 5 array. I know it can be done through the 6i configuration utility in the BIOS, but this would involve downtime.

You can add a new array and configure it in the physical world with both NetWare and Windows, neither requiring downtime to carry out the process.

Ideally I'd like to know if you can do the same in ESX - either with VMtools or through a HP utility for VMware. Unfortunately, I can't find anything on the HP site about this and just wondered if this was possible at all under VMware.

Regards,

Mel

[hells_mels]

Hi VirtualNoItAll,

Missed your message. On the positive side we do have BBWC, what process do you follow please?

Regards,

Mel