topic Re: mixed size FC and SAS in same 64bit aggr? in ONTAP Discussions

mixed size FC and SAS in same 64bit aggr?

miket — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 06:58:20 GMT

Hey guys,

I've got a pair of 3170s running 8.0.1 7-mode, with a 64bit RAID-DP aggr on each, comprised of 21 x 450gb 15krpm SAS drives (in 2 x DS4243s)

Raid size is set to 21 for these aggregates, and there is 1 spare 450gb SAS drive in each DS4243.

We just added 5 x DS14mk4 shelves with 300gb FC 15krpm drives to these filers (everything is multipathed).

The question is, can I add these new FC drives to the existing aggregates?

Assuming we keep spares set aside, in theory I should be able to grow the existing SAS aggrs by adding the FC drives and manually specifying a new raid group, right?

I'm sure this is not 'best practice' at all (assuming it's actually doable), but the customer needs to grow this aggregate, and this is the only disk they will get to expand with.

Re: mixed size FC and SAS in same 64bit aggr?

scottgelb — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:42:03 GMT

This is supported and the default option that allows this is "options raid.disktype.enable on". Definitely not something we would recommend doing, but you already said that you can add the drives into the aggregate and I would create as a new raid group if no option to not mix.

Re: mixed size FC and SAS in same 64bit aggr?

miket — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 05:13:55 GMT

excellent - thanks for the info!