Clarification on disks with vnxe3100

Hello violino2020,

Here is how you add space to your pool on your VNXe 3100.

1. Navigate to the "Storage Pools".
   • "Storage" --> "Storage Configuration" --> "Storage Pools".
2. Right click the desired Storage Pool
3. Select "Expand"
   • Extreme Performance: Storage Tier that contains Flash Disks.
   • Performance:Storage Tier that contains SAS Disks.
   • Capacity:Storage Tier that contains NL-SAS Disks.
   • Number of Disks: Number of disks specified to use for the Storage Tier. If disks are available, the number of disks will be pre-selected with the amount of disks that adhere to the recommended RAID Type/Configuration.
   • RAID Configuration:RAID Type/Configuration that will be created for the Storage Tier. By default, the recommended and preferred RAID Type/Configuration for each Storage Tier will be selected.
   • Disks: Lists of Disks that have been selected to be used for the creation of the Storage Pool.
     • Automatic: When selected, automatically selects the disks to be used, based off the Number of Disks selected in each Storage Tier.
     • Manual: When selected, allows the user to specifically select the individual disks to be used for creation of the Storage Pool.
   • Perform a background verify on the new storage: When checked, performs an initial background verification that checks to ensure the newly added drives do not contain any latent soft media errors.
4. After selecting the desired configuration, click "Apply".
   • Dependent of the configuration of the Storage Pool, additional warnings may pop-up. If you are unsure of the warnings, it is recommended to reach out to EMC for clarification before continuing to create the Storage Pool.
5. A pop-up will occur stating "The expansion of Storage Pool Namewas initiated successfully", click "OK".
   • The expansion operation for Storage Pools, typically takes very minimal time, however the time for the Storage Pool to be expanded, can vary greatly dependent on the configuration of the Storage Pool. (Amount of drives, RAID Type/Configuration, etc.)

You can pull a drive to test that your hotspare is working.  If you do pull a drive it is best to leave it out for about an hour before inserting it back in.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Hi Sam,

Thank you, but is possibile to use 11 disks in raid5 and 1 hostpsare with vnxe3100? 

 I've tried different options from unisphere but the last disk remain "unassigned"

Hello violino2020,

With a VNXe3100 when using raid 5 minimum disks 4+1 is needed. When you are adding drives, you need to add them in multiple of 5s.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Hence is it normal that with 12 disks and raid5,  2 disks remains not in use? can I have 2 hot spares? 

Hello violino2020,

You can have 2 hotspare drives in your VNXe3100. 

Please let us know if you have any other questions.