Acquiring Hardware

[#1]

Hi guys,

I would like to ask a Question. Is it poosible to buy a FAS 2552 system with only 6 hard drives at first, and get it running without it ruining the machine? (we propably would fill in more hard drives, as the need rises).

Thanks Alot! 

[#2]

There is an SKU for a zero TB config in the GSA pricelist - FAS2552-200-R6-C -"FAS2552,Zero HDD,-C: NOTE 1 -This individual part number may not be ordered as a standalone item and may only be ordered as part of a configured system."

What constitutes a configured system is anyone's guess - adding 6 hard drives might qualify? Or it might require a shelf added - hard drive shelves ship with a minimum of 12 drives, so you may as well then get the 2552 with those 12 drives in it. Contact your local sales team and find out.

[#3]

I see, Thank you very much. Just another quick question: How mucj space is aproximatly reserved for the netapp to operate ( metadata and operating system, and anything else).

I want to try and geuss how much free actuall space I will have with 1.2 TB *12 drives or 900GB*12 drives. We are not a big company and I assume that for the next few years, we are not going to surpass the 10 TB  of data.

[#4]

12 x 1.2TB SAS drives in a system, 1 spare, will allow for 8.45TB usable (9.34TB with no spares). 12 x 900GB drives, 1 spare, will allow for 6.03TB usable (6.7TB with no spares). Before deduplication, compression, etc.

In general, if it's going to be in your office, it is an option not to have any spares - three drives must fail for data loss, and we do next day delivery for replacements under support.

[#5]

Hi Allex, 

We have aquired a NetApp fas 2552 and its not quite like you described. The root aggregate took 5 drives for it self, having raid dp on it and one extra spare disk. Also, when i create another aggregate, it takes another 3 disks out, (because raid dp and more spares). Eventually what was left for me to actually use for my data is barely 2.44 TB. Do you have any idea  what sort of configurations i can make to get the most of my twelve drives? Hard for me to imagine that from 900*12 drives, all i got is barely 20% for actuall use.

Thanks

[#6]

What you are experiencing was standard up until Data Ontap 8.3.  8.3 introduced Advanced Drive Partitioning (ADP) which can be applied to All Flash arrays as well as "entry" level (like the 2552) arrays with any hard drive type.

In your case, spinning disks are split into two partitions - one large and one small.  The "small" partitions can be used for the root aggregates.  The large partitions server your data aggregates.  A single fully spare disk is spare for both partition types.  From a practical standpoint, it will appear as if you have twice as many disks in your system.  Additionally, a whole disk is not wasted when you need such a small part of it.

You'll have to reinitialize the system from scratch to convert from standard whole disk layout to ADP layout, as the disks have to be formatted that way from the start.  And you must use at least Ontap 8.3 or above - I didn't see what version of Ontap you were using, but as a new system I'd hope you were at least at 8.3.

Hope this helps.

Bob Greenwald

Senior System Engineer | cStor

NCIE SAN ONTAP, Data Protection; Flexpod Design Specialist

Kudos and accepted solutions are always appreciated.

[#7]

We  have a FAS 2552 with 12 hard drives, and its running Dataontap versiono 9.1. Can you please elaborate or refer me to a guide on how to implement the ADP? Because what I've found on the internet did not work for me...

Thank you

[#8 · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

If the system is not already partitioned, you will only have 6 data disks available, which doesn't provide great efficiency.

However, conversion to ADP is a generally disruptive process - since it requires reformatting the drives. After backing up all data, connect via serial to the controller, then boot each controller to maintenance mode from the control-C special boot menu, then unassign all disks. You will need to do this to both controllers, if two are present.

Reboot again, and chose option 4 from the special boot menu to reinitialise and wipe the system. It will automatically partition to ADP.

Hope this helps