Expand array on a SRCSAS18E

[DChap5]

Good day.

We have an array on an Intel SRCSAS18E controller with 4 drives in RAID 5 to which we would like to add 2 drives. I have read that this is done using several candles, a pentagram and invocation of storcli or MegaCli. We are running Vmware 5.5 with 3 MS Windows VMs.

My question is - can this RAID expansion be done on the fly ie while Vmware and its VMs are running?

How reliable is this operation? Should I anticipate trouble?

Thank you for your time,

--

David Chapman

mailto:dchapman@victoriataxi.com dchapman@victoriataxi.com

[AP16 · Accepted solution]

http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/d29305023_raid_swug_r23_5.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/d29305023_raid_swug_r23_5.pdf - p.188

[Anonymous]

Hi dchapman00,

I am transferring your case with the Server community, they will provide you with the proper assistance.

Regards,

Mike C

[DChap5]

Thanks for the link to this document.

However, I could not determine if I can perform the expansion 'live' ie with ESXI and the VMs running.

Thanks again,

Dave

[AP16]

Yes, all Intel RAID operations are live, hidden from OS level. But RAID5 expansion will put a lot of load to disks (including already members), so it is common sense to remove high-load VMs from server for time of maintenance.

[DChap5]

Thank you again for your reply.

These are 600GB 15k SAS drives. We are adding 2 of them to the existing 4 drive array. There are 2 Windows 2008 Server Standard VMs, one of them running SQL Server 2012, and a Windows 2003 Server VM (Domain Controller). Any idea how long this operation could take? Would it possibly be minutes? Hours? Days?

Dave

[AP16]

Considering linear writes speed about 200 MB/S for one SAS HDD (in RAID-5 rebuilds are limited to speed of 1 HDD), with no external load it should take about 5 hours.

[DChap5]

Thank you again for your time.

It seems that the more I read the more confused I get. Do I expand the array and then expand the virtual drive? Or do I do one or the other?

When I execute storcli, is the 'size' the final capacity of the virtual drive, or is it the capacity I am adding? And am I adding 600GB or 557GB? Can I enter fractional space? 557.861GB?

There is only one controller, the enclosure ID is 248.

Thank you,

Dave

[AP16]

The task consists of including drive into disk group and expanding a virtual drive. Web console do both in one task.

Size in storcli in context of Virtual drive operations is a end size of VD.

[DChap5]

I would love to use the Web console. I followed instruction in:

http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/vmware_esxi_50_installation_and_rwc2_tips_and_tric.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/vmware_esxi_50_installation_and_rwc2_tips_and_tric.pdf

installing the LSI provider and installed RWC2 on one of the machines on the LAN. However RWC2 does not see the host.

If I could get this running I would be a happy little boy.

Thanks,

Dave

[AP16]

Article https://tinkertry.com/esxi-5-1-can-run-lsi-megaraid-in-a-vm ESXi 5.1 host with LSI 92xx RAID adapter can run a VM with fully functional MegaRAID Storage Manager UI, here's how | Ti… may give you a keys to solve that trouble, while LSI updates its suite, Intel version may lag behind, so check the links to russian blog (this one i think: http://alex-at.ru/it/lsi-vmware-esxi-1 Как подружить LSI и VMWare ESXi, часть вторая - окончательное решение )

[DChap5]

I eventually got RWC2 to see the host, controller and array. The secret is in the hosts file. Thank you for the pointer.

I took delivery of the drives and installed them this evening. I connected with RWC2 and in the Logical tab clicked on Drive Group: 1, RAID 5 and GoTo -> Drive Group -> Modify Drive Group. I selected RAID5 then Next. The 2 drives I wanted to add were displayed; I selected both drives then Next. Checked over the summary then Finish.

Something is happening. Drive lights are flashing rapidly in unison. The machine has slowed dramatically. The vSphere Client shows a huge jump in disk usage.

I am concerned however. So far there is nothing in the log, and Manage -> Show Progress does not show any progress. It has been about 70 minutes since the operation started.

Does this seem normal for this operation?

Thanks,

--

David Chapman

mailto:dchapman@victoriataxi.com dchapman@victoriataxi.com

[DChap5]

So it took about 14 hours. The machine was not usable during the expansion.

~ # storcli /c0 /d1 show

Controller = 0

Status = Success

Description = Show Diskgroup Succeeded

TOPOLOGY :

========

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

DG Arr Row EID:Slot DID Type State BT Size PDC PI SED DS3 FSpace

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 - - - - RAID5 Optl N 2.723 TB enbl N N dflt N

1 0 - - - RAID5 Optl N 2.723 TB enbl N N dflt N

1 0 0 248:4 15 DRIVE Onln N 557.861 GB enbl N N dflt -

1 0 1 248:3 16 DRIVE Onln N 557.861 GB enbl N N dflt -

1 0 2 248:2 17 DRIVE Onln N 557.861 GB enbl N N dflt -

1 0 3 248:5 18 DRIVE Onln N 557.861 GB enbl N N dflt -

1 0 4 248:7 28 DRIVE Onln N 557.861 GB enbl N N dflt -

1 0 5 248:6 29 DRIVE Onln N 557.861 GB enbl N N dflt -

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does this look normal?

I got an error message when expanding the vmware esxi 5.5 datastore. I haven't made any progress since.....

Thanks,

--

David Chapman

mailto:dchapman@victoriataxi.com dchapman@victoriataxi.com