How to add storage to Edge

[kungfujoe23]

I just installed the eval of Edge using the OVA into a vSphere 5.1 environment.  It's easy enough to get going and up and running, but the default settings only provide for a roughly 50GB aggr, 30 of which is taken by the root vol with no way to reduce.

I've looked through the install/admin guide for information but it's not exactly clear on how to go about doing this. 

[BUMPSTEADT]

I do not believe you can 'ADD' storage to the eval, after it has already been deployed.

The 'FULL' Edge -v/-t this is done using the dvadmin tool, but this does not work for the eval

[jgoldsch]

You can add storage by ...

1) Power off the VM

2) Using the vSphere client: create a new VMDK file and attach it to the same SCSI controller as the 50GB VMDK

3) Start the VM

4) Login to the Data ONTAP CLI

5) Run 'disk assign all'

6) Add the disk to an existing aggregate or create a new aggregate using the disk.

(Note: since you are adding the disk after the initial setup, it will take sometime for Data ONTAP to zero the disk.  This amount of time will vary based on the size of the VMDK file and speed of your storage.)

Alternatively, you can add additional storage before powering the VM on for the first time.  Simply elect not to start the VM after deployment and follow the instructions above.  If you do this, the lengthy zeroing process can be avoided.

Thanks,

-Jason

[BUMPSTEADT]

Thanks Jason

I can confirm this works as you listed

Is there any best practice around how many vmdk's to add per physical disk spindle, to get the best performance ?

Would I be correct in assuming all IO generated by the Edge -v/-t is 4k in nature ?

Also do you know if a Flashpool can be added to the Edge -v/-t ?

Thanks

Troy

[jgoldsch]

Troy,

The number of physical disk spindles will have a much greater impact on performance than virtual disk spindles.  The perf difference between one and two (or more) VMDKs per LUN is negligible.

I/Os are 4k.

Thanks.

-Jason

[BUMPSTEADT]

Thanks Jason

I have tried several disk combinations using both the 'Edge eval', and 'Edge -v' (Eval key) in my lab, get get a lot slower performance then the disk can do natively.

This is something I will discuss at Insight next month I think, as I would like to run the Edge in my lab and be able to recommend it to customers.

[hanar]

Troy,

No, Data ONTAP Edge does not support Flash Pool. SSDs can certainly be used to build the host storage LUNs which comprise a datastore.

A Flash Pool is the newest addition to the NetApp virtual storage tier. Flash Pool allows solid state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs) to be combined to form a single Data ONTAP® aggregate. When SSD and HDD technologies are combined in a Data ONTAP aggregate, the NetApp storage system takes advantage of the latency and throughput benefits of the SSD while maintaining the mass storage capacity of HDD.

Collection of disk that is done in ONTAP is not the same in Edge. Its underlying disk type is not exposed. Instead, its all virtual and implicit performance disks.