topic Re: Aggregate expansion in AFF

Aggregate expansion

AlexeyF — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 15:19:02 GMT

We have a followig configuration:

AFF250 with 10 disks of 13,97TB.

ADPv2 is in place.

2 data aggregates of 9 partitions each 6,94 TiB in size.

We've just added 8 disks which appear as spares, not partitioned.

Tryig to expand the aggregate via GUI (ONTAP 9.10) I get the following estimation message:

Adding drives to local tier "aggr02" will increase its capacity by approximately 25 TiB

I wonder how is it going to expand the aggregate?

I would expect 8 partitions of 6,94 TiB added to the existing raid group what would result in 8x6,94TiB

Can I do it manually via command line?

Have not found any documentation other than Add capacity to a local tier (add disks to an aggregate) (netapp.com) but it is not detailed enough.

Thanks in advance for your advices.

Re: Aggregate expansion

SpindleNinja — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 15:24:48 GMT

It'll partition the drives and add the partition to the aggr. the remaining partition should get assigned to the partner node.

You can do it via CLI, I prefer it actually. The -simulate true flag is very helpful.

You'll end up with 17 disks in the raid group and a shared spare.

Re: Aggregate expansion

AlexeyF — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 15:45:59 GMT

why then only 25TB instead of 55TB (8x6,94TB)?

Re: Aggregate expansion

SpindleNinja — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:00:08 GMT

by "13,97TB". I'm assuming you mean 15.3TB NVMe Drives?

Good question.. checking maths -

10 total disks looks to be - 43.7 TiB useable per data aggr. RG size is 9x6.9TiB partitions

18 total disks looks to be - 91.11 TiB useable per data aggr. RG size is 17x6.9TiB partitions

But I would check it via the CLI - could be a GUI bug?

Re: Aggregate expansion

AlexeyF — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 18:43:35 GMT

CLUSTER02::> storage aggregate add-disks -aggregate aggr02 -diskcount 8 -simulate true

Error: command failed: Failed to add disks to aggregate "aggr02". Reason: Not enough spares on node Node2.

4 new disks are owned by Node1 and other 4 new disks are owned by Node2

1 spare already partitioned is in 1.0.4

The command would work only with max 5 disks:

storage aggregate add-disks -aggregate aggr02 -diskcount 5 -simulate true

Disks would be added to aggregate "aggr02" on node "Node2" in the following manner:

First Plex

RAID Group rg0, 5 disks (block checksum, raid_dp)
Usable Physical
Position Disk Type Size Size
---------- ------------------------- ---------- -------- --------
shared 1.0.4 SSD-NVM 6.94TB 6.94TB
shared 1.0.5 SSD-NVM 6.94TB 6.94TB
shared 1.0.6 SSD-NVM 6.94TB 6.94TB
shared 1.0.7 SSD-NVM 6.94TB 6.94TB
shared 1.0.8 SSD-NVM 6.94TB 6.94TB

Aggregate capacity available for volume use would be increased by 31.23TB.

The following disks would be partitioned: 1.0.5, 1.0.6, 1.0.7, 1.0.8.
Warning: Not enough spares of disk type SSD-NVM on node Node2.

So maybe should first add 4 disks to every aggregate, it will partition them and therefore permit to add another 4 disks ?

Re: Aggregate expansion

andris — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 19:20:38 GMT

You shouldn't have to... what is your spare partition/disk situation, now?
You still need to maintain spares after the aggregate expansions.

nodeshell CLI "sysconfig -r" for each node might provide more clarity.

Or open a technical case for formal assistance...

Re: Aggregate expansion

AlexeyF — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 11:56:17 GMT

So, adding 4 disks first (those 4 owened by the aggregates node) to one aggregate and the other 4 to another aggregates has partitioned them and I could add another 4 disk partitions to each aggregate (owened by partner node) afterwards.

It has added 25TBx2 though instead of 6.94TBx4x2.

Re: Aggregate expansion

LoriAlexander — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 15:41:04 GMT

Does swapping aggregates (adding 2, removing 2) affect the ONTAP One licensing cost to the customer?

Re: Aggregate expansion

SpindleNinja — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 15:45:01 GMT

Nope, licensing is just at the raw capacity level. not the config.

Re: Aggregate expansion

LoriAlexander — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 16:02:31 GMT

so if they add capacity, then it would cost them??

Re: Aggregate expansion

SpindleNinja — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 03:08:25 GMT

Yes, if you add physical disks to a system it has licensing + support in the capacity expansion quote.

Please reach out directly if you have question on quotes.