AFF-A400 - Aggregate expansion

[carmine pulsar]

Im in the processes of expanding our AFF-A400 with 6 more nvme disks. We have 1 shelf with 18 disks and I want to add 6 more to that shelf and expand both data aggregates.

The output from storage aggregate show-status shows that the 2 data aggregates use the same disks (advanced partitions p1/p2). Currently they have 17 disks and 1 spare, the 2 nodes in the cluster both are owner of half the disks.

Im unsure on what steps to take to add them to both aggregates.

From what i can find its storage aggregate add-disks -aggregate aggr01_data -diskcount 6 -raidgroup rg0 and storage aggregate add-disks -aggregate aggr02_data -diskcount 6 -raidgroup rg0.
Are there more steps involved into adding the disks? The Max RAID Size is 24.

Can someone steer me in the right direction? Thanks!

[chilly flare]

Once you add the disks to the existing raid-group ONTAP should automatically partition the disks.

Always add -simulate true first so you're sure what would happen.

"the 2 nodes in the cluster both are owner of half the disks"
--> Not sure if your cmds would work then, since every node only owns 3x disks. I would change the ownership, so one node owns all of the 6x disks. Then add the disks to the first aggr --> ONTAP will partition the disks.
Then check if ONTAP assigned ownership of the remaining partitions to the other node. If not, assign them manually and then add them to the other aggr.

If you struggle with all of that try System Manager. In the recent versions it's actually quite useful.

There's also a command to manually partition the disks using an existing disk as the source but that's hidden behind diag-privilege.

[carmine pulsar]

that simulate options sounds nice, didnt know about that one. Am i correct that i would need to disable to auto disk assigning? Was reading about assigning on https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap/disks-aggregates/disk-autoassignment-policy-concept.html and there it says that most AFF systems use splitshelf, but when i look at the owners it feels bit random 1.0.0 netapp-c2-02 1.0.1 netapp-c2-02 1.0.2 netapp-c2-02 1.0.3 netapp-c2-02 1.0.4 netapp-c2-02 1.0.5 netapp-c2-02 1.0.6 netapp-c2-01 1.0.7 netapp-c2-01 1.0.8 netapp-c2-01 1.0.15 netapp-c2-02 1.0.16 netapp-c2-02 1.0.17 netapp-c2-02 1.0.18 netapp-c2-01 1.0.19 netapp-c2-01 1.0.20 netapp-c2-01 1.0.21 netapp-c2-01 1.0.22 netapp-c2-01 1.0.23 netapp-c2-01 Want to be sure it doesnt start doing anything once inserted 🙂 I have attached the output from the first command (just for clarity). Thanks for the help!

[chilly flare]

You can savely insert the new disks. ONTAP might auto-assign and maybe even auto-partition them already (which would be good, so you don't have to do it manually). Also it's very easy to change the ownership of disks and even partitions.

ONTAP will never automatically add new disks to already created aggregates. There is nothing to fear here.

Post the output of the following cmds afterwards (wait ~5min after inserting the disks):

rows 0
disk option show
disk show
aggr show-spare-disks
run -node * sysconfig -r
aggr add-disks -aggregate aggr01_data -diskcount 6 -raidgroup rg0 -simulate true

[slim fern]

Might need to bump the maxraidgroupsize to 24

[golden wraith]

I would go to 23 to avoid accidentally adding the last spare ... not that this has ever happened to me 🙈

I mean, yeah, it warns you that you won't have any spares left and you have to confirm, but still 🙂

[slim fern]

Exactly. Thanks

[carmine pulsar]

ah good one. Tomorrow I'm in the DC, so should be able to get the output you request OG1.

Still have to insert the disks 😄