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How to increase Disk partition space on SFHA

Zahid_Haseeb
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited

Environment

SFHA version = 5.1 SP2

OS = win2008 enterprise Server

Disk Type = Dynamic

DiskGroup = only one

Size on DiskGroup = nothing

Cluster  = two Node Cluster

I want to increase the size of one partition which is my SAN drive participating with SFHA 5.1 SP2. I have two questions.

1.) Is there any prerequesites before going to increase the partition (One could be take the backup of that partition)

2.) What are the ways any person feel that this will be good way to increase the partition. 

(in my opinion there are two ways:)

First way

Add the SAN Disk to existing DiskGroup and then increase the exising volume size

Second way

Add a new big SAN drive to the DiskGroup and create one big partition. 

3.) Does extending of a Partition/Volume in a DiskGroup also need to Down the Service Group of the Cluster if the Cluster is also running on the Nodes?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Wally_Heim
Level 6
Employee

Hi Zahid,

As you mentioned, you can increase the size of a volume in two ways.

1. You can add another disk to the servers, add it to the disk group, then expand the volume on to the new disk (assuming that you are not running a stripe or RAID5 volume.)  This can be done with no down time to the application at all - AKA it can be done on a live production system.

2. You can increase the size of the existing lun being presented and then expand the volume to the extra space on the lun.  There are some concerns with this approach.

a. If the disk style is GPT then the process can be done online wihtout much concern.

b. If the disk style is MBR, then you should run vxcbr.exe to take a manual backup of the private region before expanding the lun.  The reason for this is the private region for MBR disks are at the end of the disk.  SFW should during the next rescan move the private region to the new end of the lun.  However, if there are problems moving the private region then the disk will revert to the basic group.  If the private region does not move then access to the data will be lost until the vxcbr backup is restored.  Also keep in mind that MBR disks have a max size of just under 2TB (2TB - 4KB I think.)

 

Thanks,

Wally

View solution in original post

1 REPLY 1

Wally_Heim
Level 6
Employee

Hi Zahid,

As you mentioned, you can increase the size of a volume in two ways.

1. You can add another disk to the servers, add it to the disk group, then expand the volume on to the new disk (assuming that you are not running a stripe or RAID5 volume.)  This can be done with no down time to the application at all - AKA it can be done on a live production system.

2. You can increase the size of the existing lun being presented and then expand the volume to the extra space on the lun.  There are some concerns with this approach.

a. If the disk style is GPT then the process can be done online wihtout much concern.

b. If the disk style is MBR, then you should run vxcbr.exe to take a manual backup of the private region before expanding the lun.  The reason for this is the private region for MBR disks are at the end of the disk.  SFW should during the next rescan move the private region to the new end of the lun.  However, if there are problems moving the private region then the disk will revert to the basic group.  If the private region does not move then access to the data will be lost until the vxcbr backup is restored.  Also keep in mind that MBR disks have a max size of just under 2TB (2TB - 4KB I think.)

 

Thanks,

Wally