Adding a J Class to an existing San

nrausch · Xsan Master Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 202

Submitted for your approval...

Our XSAN current setup:
1 E-class (Metamirror, 2 spares, and 2 x 6 disk raid 5s)
1 E-Class/ J-Class (4 x 7 disk raid 5s)

All are 750Gb disks
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The plan is to chain a new J-Class (1TB disks) off of the 1st E-Class.
The new storage will be it's own storage pool (Affinity), comprised of 2 x 7 Disk Raid 5s.

I have added additional chassis in E-J pairs. But never a J to an existing E.

The things that most concern me...
*Is the newer silverfaced J-Class fully compatible with the Original E-Class?

*Running the config script for the New J-class makes me a little nervous, just because of the fact that it's running on the existing operational E-class that contains the metadata drives and finalcutserver proxies. Anyone had experience with configuring this? did it go smoothly?
All should be fine if the new script only addresses drives 17-32 and doesn't use any of the same lun numbers/names, correct?
Should I remove the E-Class Drives (1-16) for extra safety?
Over Paranoid?

* Assuming that expanding the volume will be very smooth. (Backup configs, Add a pool/affinity, put the 2 new luns in.) Any reason to believe otherwise? Any known gotchas?

Appreciate any insights....

vlagua · JBOD Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 2

Hi nrausch,

The new "silver-faced" J Class subsystem is fully compatible with the existing E Class.

The config scripts can be modified to accommodate the new J Class in your set-up.

PM me and I'd be happy to assist you directly.

/Virgilio
Promise Technology

abstractrude · Xsan Master Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 865

This will work perfectly fine. I would probably build your new luns out by hand using the WEB PAM, especially if you are doing this with no backup. The script can do just the J but if you make a mistake or load the wrong file, bye bye data.

Your doing this correctly.Make a backup before you expand Smile

nrausch · Xsan Master Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 202

It went so smoothly...

(This is the first XSAN expansion that has gone this smoothly for me.)

The only hiccup was that for some reason Spotlight would not search the new Affinity/ Storage Pool.

A trashing of the spotlight index seems to have remedied this.

Any idea why it wouldn't know to search the new storage once the volume restarted?
Not too important just curious....