#Spares need to be partitioned?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

jagged elk
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I am trying to get my head around spares. Please find the attached outputs of some commands.

  1. I am guessing two spares 11.0.0 and 13.2.23 need to be partitioned to be P1, P2, and P3 in order to be used for spares, as it is not partitioned.
  2. I am also confused with the status of 11.0.4, it seems to be owned by both nodes. Could it be possible? Is it being used in aggregates?
📎 spares.temp
potent spade
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I always use disk partition show to check my partitions since that's easier to understand in my opinion.
Try disk partition show -partition *P1 for the first data-partition of each disk (usually owned by node1), disk partition show -partition *P2 for the second data-partition of each disk (usually owned by node2, or the other way around) and disk partition show -partition *P3 for the root-partitions owned by both nodes half-half.
Be aware that this command will only show partitioned disks so your unpartitioned "full" disks (currently 11.0.0. & 13.2.23) would not show up.

Regarding your questions:

  1. They don't really need to be partitioned (but you could do it manually if you want to). ONTAP would partition them if needed and if there are no partitioned spares available in the correct size. I would at least reassign the second spare disk 13.2.23 to node-02 so it's uniform.
  2. Disk 11.0.4 is currently partitioned and the data-partition P1 of this disk is owned by node-01 and data-partition P2 by node-02. Use aggregate show-status to show your current aggr layout.
wispy turret
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A whole (unpartitioned) drive has the benefit of being able to replace either a partitioned drive or a whole drive. (It's more flexible this way.)

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You don't have to partition your spare. But if your system also has whole drives present in RAID groups, you're better off leaving it whole. ONTAP will automatically grab the drive and partition it to match the RG members if it needs to do so.

jagged elk
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One follow-up please.
1 partitioned drive (11.0.4), it's 2 data partitions are owned by two different nodes. Now, there are 2 whole drives (unpartitioned) and owned by the same node-01. Should I reassigned one of them to now-02? because spares cannot be used by the other node if they are owned by this node, based on my udnerstanding.

wispy turret
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Yes. One per node is fine.

outer tapir
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Note that on older ONTAP releases (a couple of years ago I think), if you had 1 whole unpartitioned drive per HA pair, ONTAP would complain that you didn't have any spares when you actually did. That was eventually fixed after I whined enough.

jagged elk
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Upon the discussion above, I know I don't have to partition a disk for spares. But, if the disk is owned by one of two nodes in HA, then it cannot be picked up when needed by the other node. Correct?
In this case, I have to partition it, and have P1 and P2 owned by two different nodes. Correct?

wispy turret
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ONTAP 9.2 introduced the concept of a single "global spare" for configurations up to 48x SSDs. If you have more than 48x SSDs, then having one spare per node is not a bad idea.

jagged elk
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My question is different than your response:
If I have only one whole disk as a spare for both nodes and owned by one of two nodes in HA, then I would have to partition it, have P1 as a spare for one node, and have P2 as a spare for the other node. I shoudn't leave the whole disk as is without partitioning it. Right?

wispy turret
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In the case that I mentioned, the spare will auto-partition itself.

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Regardless, if a partitioned drive failed and a whole spare was available, the whole drive would be automatically partitioned to accommodate the failed member of the RG

outer tapir
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One spare physical drive per HA pair is sufficient and ONTAP takes care of the rest. Don't worry about partitioning it - just throw it in there and let ONTAP manage it.

jagged elk
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So, the node can pick up the whole drive even it is owned by the other node? The question is not about partitioning, but a ownership.

wispy turret
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Since ONTAP 9.2 introduced the concept of a single "global spare" for configurations up to 48x SSDs, there isn't any need to worry about the ownership. As I mentioned earlier, ONTAP will partition it automatically and assign the ownership of the spare partitions as required.

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For quantities greater than 48x SSDs, you will want to maintain a minimum of 1x spare per node

jagged elk
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Ok, finally I got that it doesn't matter which node owns the drive. Now for quantities less than 48 x SSD, the ownership should matter, and a drive can only be owned by one node. For that reason, I would have to partition it to P1 and P2, and assign them to two different nodes. Right?

wispy turret
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You don't have to do anything with 48x or less SSDs, but you're more than welcome to do so. ONTAP will handle it automatically on it's own especially during a drive failure event.