Solaris: Add a new hard drive to existing zfs pool (with hpacucli)

Written by Claudio Kuenzler - 0 comments

Published on June 17th 2013 - Listed in Solaris Hardware Unix ZFS

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In a previous article I explained how a defect hard drive can be replaced in a HP Proliant Server (using a HP Raid Controller) and running on Solaris.

This time I had to add new disks to an existing zfs pool (zpool). There are a lot of howtos on the Internet (a good one is http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/819-5461/gazgw/index.html), however almost all howtos don't mention the hpacucli command which must be used when the HP Raid Controller presents the drives to the Operating System.

Once the new disks are physically installed, their presence can be verified in hpacucli:

/opt/HPQacucli/sbin/hpacucli
HP Array Configuration Utility CLI 8.0-14.0
Detecting Controllers...Done.
Type "help" for a list of supported commands.
Type "exit" to close the console.

=> ctrl slot=1 show config

Smart Array P400 in Slot 1    (sn: PA2240J9STL1WU)

   array A (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)
      logicaldrive 1 (68.3 GB, RAID 0, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:1 (port 2I:box 1:bay 1, SAS, 72 GB, OK)

   array B (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)
      logicaldrive 2 (68.3 GB, RAID 0, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:2 (port 2I:box 1:bay 2, SAS, 72 GB, OK)

   array C (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)
      logicaldrive 3 (68.3 GB, RAID 0, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:3 (port 2I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 72 GB, OK)

   array D (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)
      logicaldrive 4 (68.3 GB, RAID 0, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:4 (port 2I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 72 GB, OK)

   unassigned
      physicaldrive 1I:1:5 (port 1I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:6 (port 1I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 146 GB, OK)

The new drives appear as "unassigned" at the bottom.

Now these drives must be configured like the other drives, as single logical drives with a raid 0 (sounds strange, indeed).
So still in the hpacucli, launch the following commands with the ID's of your new physical drives:

=> ctrl slot=1 create type=ld drives=1I:1:5 raid=0
=> ctrl slot=1 create type=ld drives=1I:1:6 raid=0

Now verify the config again and then exit hpacucli:

 => ctrl slot=1 show config

Smart Array P400 in Slot 1    (sn: PA2240J9STL1WU)

   array A (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)
      logicaldrive 1 (68.3 GB, RAID 0, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:1 (port 2I:box 1:bay 1, SAS, 72 GB, OK)

   array B (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)
      logicaldrive 2 (68.3 GB, RAID 0, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:2 (port 2I:box 1:bay 2, SAS, 72 GB, OK)

   array C (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)
      logicaldrive 3 (68.3 GB, RAID 0, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:3 (port 2I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 72 GB, OK)

   array D (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)
      logicaldrive 4 (68.3 GB, RAID 0, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:4 (port 2I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 72 GB, OK)

   array E (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)
      logicaldrive 5 (136.7 GB, RAID 0, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:5 (port 1I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 146 GB, OK)

   array F (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)
      logicaldrive 6 (136.7 GB, RAID 0, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:6 (port 1I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 146 GB, OK)

=> exit

The disks should now be seen in Solaris. Their new "Solaris device names" can be seen with the command format:

format
Searching for disks...done

AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. c0t0d0
          /pci@0,0/pci8086,25e3@3/pci103c,3234@0/sd@0,0
       1. c0t1d0
          /pci@0,0/pci8086,25e3@3/pci103c,3234@0/sd@1,0
       2. c0t2d0
          /pci@0,0/pci8086,25e3@3/pci103c,3234@0/sd@2,0
       3. c0t3d0
          /pci@0,0/pci8086,25e3@3/pci103c,3234@0/sd@3,0
       4. c0t4d0
          /pci@0,0/pci8086,25e3@3/pci103c,3234@0/sd@4,0
       5. c0t5d0
          /pci@0,0/pci8086,25e3@3/pci103c,3234@0/sd@5,0

So the new devices are called c0t4d0 and c0t5d0. The disks can now be added to the existing pool.
The command to add new drives to a zpool allows the -n option, which allows a test add (so it's just a test-run):

zpool add -n zonepool mirror c0t4d0 c0t5d0
would update 'zonepool' to the following configuration:
        zonepool
          mirror
            c0t2d0s0
            c0t3d0s0
          mirror
            c0t4d0
            c0t5d0

If there are no errors appearing, the drives can definitely be added to the zpool:

zpool add zonepool mirror c0t4d0 c0t5d0

The zpool status then shows the new attached mirror:

zpool status

  pool: zonepool
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: none requested
config:

        NAME          STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        zonepool      ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror      ONLINE       0     0     0
            c0t2d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c0t3d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror      ONLINE       0     0     0
            c0t4d0    ONLINE       0     0     0
            c0t5d0    ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

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