Purpose
Eventually you will run out of space in an array. This document will explain how to change out the drives with larger drives and then expand the array.
Scope
These procedures outlined below stand for expanding drives to an adaptec array.
References
IT Technician is responsible for the completion of these tasks.
Warning: Make a backup of the data before you extend the array. Also expanding the array takes a lot of time. You should be able to use the drive while it is expanding, but things can go wrong.
Alternatives
You may want to consider the following alternatives.
- You may want to consider replacing the whole array at one time. This can save a lot of time and give you a backup plan in the process. (You will keep the old array intact incase you need to go back.)
- Shutdown the server.
- Pull out all of the drives in the array. (Note: If you have all of the drives in an array you could put them all back in the array controller and then scan for an array and mount that array in the future.)
- Replace the drives with new drives.
- Create an array with the Quick Init Option. (This will create the array immediately.)
- Start using the array
- After the array has been running, then run the Fix Build / Array to change the state to Optimal. (This will take a while but you can use the array while the process is running.)
- To build out an array of 50 TB it can take about 10 days
Expanding a logical drive using MaxView
- Login to the server.
- Open Maxview Storage Manager
- Expand the Enterprise View in the left hand panel
- Navigate to Controller > Logical Devices > Array
- Click on the Device that you want to expand.
- In the Logical Device Click on the Expand/Migrate Logical Device icon
- Follow the wizard to expand the array.
- You will see a task with the progress of the Update.
Note: You can still use the drive while the array is being built out, but the redundancy will be lowered in the build out process.