Need to increase the disk space

[RImpe]

Newbie here working on a Intel Modular Server, Model MFSYS25V2, whatever help I can get would be greatly appreciated and if I need to post in a

different community please let me know. Thanks.

I have a couple of questions, please bear with me.

1 ----- When Looking at the front chassis (web browser or physical unit)

We have 8 hard drives on the left side of the unit (one extra for hot swap and another one I am assuming it is an unformatted spare, in the Modular Server Control it says "Predictive Failure (PFA). All HD's are 278GB

We have 2 server units in the middle of the of Model MFSYS25V2 as a Raid 5

SRVBT1 and SRVBT2 both are: 4.00 GB Raid 5, one says Server 1 Drive 0 the other says Server 2 Drive 0

Then there are 2 LUN's they both say: 700.GB Raid 5, Assigned to….. (Not sure to what)

I am not understanding how SRVBT1, SRVBT2, LUN1, LUN2 and the 8 hard drive interact.

If someone could please give me a layman's explanation, I would greatly appreciate it!

I guess I should explain how we are using the MFSYS25V2

We have 6 - Window 2003 Servers and one Windows XP installed using VMWARE VSphere (Newbie to this as well).

What we have for servers ---- 2 DC's, 1 each of FS, Backup, data and app.

2 ----- A consulting company installed MFSYS25V2 a couple of years ago way before my time, the data server has 6 virtual drives ranging in different disk sizes. I need to increase one of the virtual drive space if possible. Right now it has 60 GB and we need to increase it to at least 120 GB (60 GB more). Can I take the HD that says PFA (see above), format it, add it to the" storage pool" and possibly increase the virtual drive that needs to be increased by 60GB and leave the rest unallocated??????

If not, can you suggest what I can do? I know that I cannot go out and buy all new

larger HDs and replace one larger HD with one of the smaller one and let theRAID 5 rebuild….if I do that only the amount of the smaller HD will be formattedon the larger HD and the rest of the HD will be wasted.

I again appreciate any help I can get.

If I need to post this somewhere else please let me know.

If you need any more information please let me know, I will answer as soon as I can.

thanks,

Robin

[Daniel_O_Intel]

The short version is, the physical hard drives get put into a storage pool (I'm guessing your setup is just a single storage pool), then various multiple virtual drives are created out of the storage pool.

For the drive reporting a PFA, it's usually best to replace that hard drive.

There is an option to Expand a virtual drive, through the GUI. Do you have any leftover space in the storage pool that you can use?

[RImpe]

Thank You Dan for responding.

I am guessing the setup here is single storage pool. how can I

check that?

I know we have 2 LUNs, each one has a capacity of 699.75 GB.

There is a total of 618.57 gb of unallocated space (seeing this

on the Modular Server Control) is this the "leftover space inthe storage pool" you asked above? if so, where in the GUI would I expanda Virtual Drive? Do I have to take the Model MFSYS25V2 unit down in orderto increase the VD?

What we need to do is increase the disk space of one of the Virtual Servers drives. this Virtual Server has 6 Virtual Drives and drive M is the one that we need to increase the disk space from 60 gb to 120 gb

One of the LUN's has 203 GB free and the other has 467 GB free (found

this information in the VSphere Client page),

let me see if I understand this:

The 8 physical hard drives are the storage pool.

Are the storage pools the LUN's?

They are both Raid 5 (see this on the Modular Server Control).

Thanks again for your reply Dan

Robin

[Daniel_O_Intel]

No problem. First, go to http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/mfsys25/sb/CS-028608.htm Intel® Modular Server System MFSYS25 — Product user guide and download the PDF of the Product User Guide, it has images of all this stuff, which will help you out a lot.

Page 67 (83 of 234) shows a picture of a modular server with only a single Storage Pool - it's the big green rectangle. Click 'Storage' over on the left of the GUI, or use the tab at the top.

When you click on a Virtual Drive inside the Storage Pool, you will see the Actions box on the right changes, to tell you what you can do with your virtual drive. There are definitions in the guide of what everything does, including

Expand Expands the size of an existing virtual drive using any unallocated space within the storage pool in which the virtual drive resides. Note: This function is only available when the Intel® Modular Server

Storage Management Pack feature is activated

If you haven't purchased that optional feature, the harder way is to back up the data, delete the virtual drive, create a new, bigger, virtual drive, then restore the data.

There's more details about the optional feature at http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-030986.htm Intel® Modular Server Systems — Intel® Modular Server Storage Management Pack FAQ as well, including the order code down at the bottom of that page.

[RImpe]

Dan,

I downloaded the User Guide, thank you for the information.

I will take a look at it and see what I can do. I appreciate your help. I probably won't be posting until next Tuesday or Wednesday with any questions I might have.

thanks again,

Robin

[RImpe]

Dan,

I read the Users Guide, thank you again for forwarding the link. I have one question right now that I will ask and hopefully the answer will clear up my other questions. (please bear in mind that I am a newbie with virtualization and this unit)

Unfortunately, when the Modular Server was purchased the Intel® Modular Server Storage Management Pack was not purchased. So I know I can not increase the disk space that is unallocated.

I am comfused : I understand (page 48 of User's guide)

"Configuring storage includes grouping installed physical hard drives into storage pools, creating virtual drives, and assigning the virtual drives to one or more compute modules. Storage

configuration also includes creating and assigning hot spares to storage pools."

What I don't understand is (PG 65 of the User's guide):

"Select the type of storage pool to create. If the pool is to be used with compute modules, Select Create Storage Pool. If the pool is to be used with virtual machines, select Create VM Storage Pool."

What is the difference between Storage Pool (compute Modules) and VM Storage Pool( Virtual Machine)? I am not following it. I know there is something I am missing but I cannot place it. Below is what is

making me confused:

We have 6 windows servers and 1 xp machine installed on the Model Server with 2 Compute Modulars both with 700GB and RAID5,

aren't they virtual machines? I am assuming that the setup would be Virtual Machine. How would I know if it is set up as Virtual Machine or Compute Modules?

thanks for your assistance here.

Robin

[RImpe]

Can someone please help me?

What is the difference between Storage Pool (compute Modules) and VM Storage Pool( Virtual Machine)? I am not following it. I know there is something I am missing but I cannot place it. Below is what is

making me confused:

We have 6 windows servers and 1 xp machine installed on the Model Server with 2 Compute Modulars both with 700GB and RAID5,

aren't they virtual machines? I am assuming that the setup would be Virtual Machine. How would I know if it is set up as Virtual Machine or Compute Modules?

thanks

[Daniel_O_Intel]

The VM Storage Pool is only for systems running firmware 11.x with the optional Intel® Modular Server Virtualization Manager (MFSVRT).

On the left side of the GUI, go to Settings > Firmware, and look at the Current Build Version.

If yours is 10.something, you can ignore references to virtual machines in the user guide.

If it is 11.something, check to see if, when the unit was purchased, they also bought the (optional) Virtualization Manager software as well.

[RImpe]

Thank You Dan!

The current version is 10.4......

Now I can move forward.