Increasing the Capacity of a Standard Logical Drive

Related Topics

Use this option to increase the storage capacity of an existing standard logical drive . An increase in logical drive capacity may be achieved by:

Caution: Increasing the capacity of a standard logical drive is only supported on certain operating systems. If you increase the logical drive capacity on a host operating system that is unsupported, the expanded capacity will be unusable and you cannot restore the original logical drive capacity. For information on supported operating systems, see Increase Logical Drive Capacity: Additional Instructions.

Important: A maximum of two drives may be added at one time to increase logical drive capacity.

A standard logical drives storage capacity cannot be increased if:

Note: An increase in capacity MAY be achieved for standard logical drives that have not yet been registered with the operating system. If a logical drive-to-LUN mapping has NOT been defined, and a hot_add utility (or similar utility) has NOT been used to register the logical drive with the operating system, an increase in capacity may be achieved.

Example: 

You have created a new standard logical drive with a capacity of 10 GB, and once created, you realize that its capacity needs to be increased another 5 GB. The operating system does not yet recognize the standard logical drive because a logical drive-to-LUN mapping has not been defined, and the hot_add utility (or similar utility) has not been run. At this point, the standard logical drives capacity may still be increased.

Once the standard logical drive has been recognized by the operating system, the operating system-specific restrictions will apply. For more information, see Increase Logical Drive Capacity: Additional Instructions.

Procedure

1

Highlight a standard logical drive in the Logical View of the Subsystem Management Window. Then, select either the Logical Drive >> Increase Capacity pull-down menu option, or Increase Capacity from the right-mouse pop-up menu.

Important: When no free capacity and unconfigured capacity exists, the Increase Capacity option is unavailable.

Result: The Increase Logical Drive Capacity dialog is displayed. The logical drive name, current capacity, and amount of free capacity available for the selected logical drive are displayed.

If free capacity is available, the maximum capacity available is displayed in the Increase capacity by spinner box.

If there is no free capacity on the array, the free space that is shown in the Increase capacity by spinner box is 0. Drives must be added to create free capacity on the array of the standard logical drive.

2

Use one of the following methods to increase capacity:

To do this ...

Follow these steps ...

Increase logical drive capacity using free capacity on the array of the standard logical drive

1

Accept the final capacity or use the Increase capacity by spinner box to adjust the capacity.

2

Select OK.

Result: A confirmation dialog is displayed.

3

Type Yes and select OK to continue.

Result: The Logical View is updated. The logical drive having its capacity increased shows a status of Operation in Progress , together with its original capacity and the total capacity being added.

In addition, the Free Capacity node involved shows a reduction in capacity. If all of the free capacity is used to increase the logical drives size, then the Free Capacity node involved will be removed from the Logical View.

Increase logical drive capacity by adding unconfigured capacity (drives) to the array of the standard logical drive

1

If no unassigned drives are available and empty slots in the drive enclosures are available, insert new drives. For more information, refer to your Drive Enclosure User Guide .

If no unassigned drives are available, and there are no empty slots available in the drive enclosures, install another drive enclosure and additional drives. For more information, refer to your Controller Enclosure, Drive Enclosure, and Storage System Installation Guide.

2

Select Add Drives.

Result: The Increase Logical Drive Capacity - Add Drives dialog is displayed. Enclosure, slot and usable capacity details for the available unassigned drives are displayed.

Note: The drives displayed will have a capacity that is either the same size, or larger than the capacity of the drives already being utilized by the array.

3

Select a single drive, or two drives to be added:

  • Press CTRL + click to select nonadjacent drives.
  • Press Shift + click to select adjacent drives.

4

Select Add.

Result: The Add Free Capacity dialog is closed. Check the Drives to add [enclosure, slot] area to ensure the correct drives have been added.

5

Accept the final capacity or use the Increase capacity by spinner box to adjust the capacity.

6

Select OK.

Result: A confirmation dialog is displayed.

7

Type Yes to confirm the operation, and select OK to continue.

Result: The Logical View is updated. The logical drive having its capacity increased shows a status of Operation in Progress , together with its original capacity and the total capacity being added. In addition, the Free Capacity node involved in the increase will show a reduction in capacity.

If a Free Capacity node did not exist prior to the addition of capacity, a new Free Capacity node is created and displayed in the Logical View.

Unassigned drives added (unconfigured capacity) change in the Physical View to assigned drives, and become associated with the logical drives array.

Increase Capacity Progress

To view the progress of the increase in capacity, highlight the logical drive and select either the Logical Drive >> Properties pull-down menu, or Properties from the right-mouse pop-up menu.

Result: The Logical Drive Properties dialog is displayed. A progress bar at the bottom of the dialog indicates the capacity increase progress.

Related Topics

Adding Free Capacity to an Array

Increasing the Capacity of a Repository Logical Drive