Is it necessary to add in additional drives for upgrade to a dual controller?

[SEBASTIANSIM]

Hi,

Currently i have the following set up and would like to add in 2nd controller for all the below existing SAN storage.

S/N	Machine   Type	Raw   Disk Capacity	Disk   Space [Total Usable]
1	NetApp   FAS2040	12   x 1TB SATA	6.55TB
2	NetApp   FAS2020	12   x 500GB SATA	3.27   TB
3	NetApp   FAS2020	12   x 500GB SATA	3.27   TB
4	NetApp   FAS2020	12   x 500GB SATA	3.27   TB
5	NetApp   FAS2020	6   x 500GB SATA	1.09   TB

I need your advice on the following;

1) Do i need to add in 3 extra drives for the upgrade of a single controller to a dual-controller configuration?

2) By adding in 3 extra drives for the upgrade of single controller to a dual controller; is the best practice to construct the minimum RAID group?

Many thanks

[nigelg1965 · Accepted solution]

I think the answer is going to be yes, unless you have several spare disks (min 3 or 4) per filer, or can can move or delete a aggregate.

Why so many small filers, are they seperate sites?

May be you could buy a single external shelf and fail half the disks of each filer over one at a time.

[SEBASTIANSIM]

Hi,

Yes there are many sites. Many thanks for your help. Really appreciate it.