How to integrate my new shelfs

[netapp_fh]

Hello,

we bought a 3140 active/active with 2 DS14mk2 (1tb sata) disks last year. we bought 2 new shelfs this year and attached them to the existing storage. right now configured as aggr1, no data on the disks.

both heads are configured the same way: 2 parity disks, 1 spare disk = 11 data disks. os version is 7.3.3

STORE> aggr status
           Aggr State           Status            Options
          aggr1 online          raid_dp, aggr     raidsize=16
          aggr0 online          raid_dp, aggr     root

we wont buy another shelf in the next 1 or 2 years, so we do not look into the future (maybe 2 sas diskshelfs, for some special purpose).

we want to get the best performance and space out of this disks. i know there is a rg limit of 16 TB, right?

does it make sense to create a new rg with the new 14 disks and move the rg into the existing volume? will that work?

can i upgrade to 8.0.1 and move the new disks into the old raidgroup?

thanks alot for any tips/information.

[shaunjurr]

Hi,

You haven't really said what you are using the storage systems for, so it is a little difficult to make any specific recommendations.

"Performance" from SATA disks is in most instances going to be modest at best.

You don't have many possibilites to expand your existing aggregates.  IIRC, the aggregate limit is 16TB + parity disks.

If you want larger aggregate sizes, you need to upgrade to ONTap 8.0.x and create a new 64-bit aggregate and move all of the existing volumes over to that aggregate, preferrably with snapmirror. The root volume will need to be moved with ndmpcopy. You can then destroy the current aggr0 and zero the disks and add those to the 64-bit aggregate.

Most likely your next purchase won't be 1TB disks or even DS14 shelves, as they will already be EOL.  Keeping up with the more rapidly changing SATA disk sizes and bus architectures is truly one of the more irritating aspects of using the "cheap disks".