Add Disks to Increase Storage on Cisco UCS BE6K

[Randy Calderon]

Hello Experts,

We have a Cisco UCSC-C220-M3SBE and we'd like to add more disks to it to increase the storage in VMWare. Would it be just as simple as buying another compatible HDD (like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148711) and placing it into the available slots? I know I have to increase the known storage in VMWare.

I am thinking of purchasing 2 TB storages or as much as the server would allow me to get.

Thanks,

Randy C.

[Manuel Velasco · Accepted solution]

Hi Rhandelle, In addition to what Alvaro mentioned, yes it is possible increase the amount of storage by adding extra hard disks. It is also possible to expand the current raid volume but if you don't do this correctly you can lose your data. What I recommend instead, is that after you add supported hard disks to create a separate raid volume with the new hard disks and used VMWARE to expand you datastore.

[Randy Calderon]

Hello Manuel,

I plan to do that exactly as you stated. Create another RAID 10 volume and provision it in VMWare. What I do not know is how to go about it in VMWare once the RAID volume has been created. Do I expand the current datastore or add another datastore? I'd prefer the latter if it is possible and if so, I'm not sure about how to do that in VMWare ESXi 5.1. Do you have a link or guide that can help me or do I have to search that in VMWare's support site?

Thank you for your time,

Randy C.

[Manuel Velasco · Accepted solution]

Hi Randy,

Take a look at the link below.

https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp#com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc_50/GUID-B0D89816-02E5-4C42-AAFC-19751800A284.html

[Randy Calderon]

Thanks for the prompt response Manuel. Cheers!

[Alvaro Jesus Vargas Monge]

Hello Rhandelle,

Please find on the document below, the list of supported hard drives:

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/C220M3_SFF_SpecSheet.pdf

On page 29, you will find the supported list. Here are some aspects you have to keep in mind

For the best performance, follow these guidelines:

• Use either all SAS or all SATA drives in a RAID group.
• Use the same capacity for each drive in the RAID group.
• Never mix HDDs and SSDs in the same RAID group.
• You can install them on the available slots. Here is the complete installation guide including cabling.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C220/install/C220/raid.html#pgfId-1015625

Keep in mind that the hard drives mentioned on the link are the ones that have been tested by Cisco.

Feel free to post any further questions you may have.

[Randy Calderon]

Hello Alvaro,

Thanks for taking the time respond.

We currently have four A03-D500GC3 in the server and we're planning to just add four more of the same hard drive and configure that into another RAID 10 array.

I'm confused about the need for the cables. There are currently 4 (out of 8) empty hard drive slots. My thought is to buy four A03-D500GC3 hard drives and just insert them in the available slots using the sled mounted to each HDDs. Do I still need to buy a special cable?

Appreciate your help,

Randy C.

[Alvaro Jesus Vargas Monge]

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