Using a DL380p Gen8 and D2700 Disk Enclosure

Well, I use a D2700 for ZFS storage and worked a bit to get LEDs and sesctl features to work on it. I also have SAS MPxIO multipath running well.

I've done quite a bit of SSD testing on ZFS and with this enclosure.

Here's the lowdown.

• The D2700 is a perfectly-fine JBOD for ZFS.
• You will want to have an HP Smart Array controller handy to update the enclosure firmware to the latest revision.
• LSI controllers are recommended here. I use a pair of LSI 9205-8e for this.
• I have a pile of HP drive caddies and have tested Intel, OCZ, OWC (sandforce), HP (Sandisk/Pliant), Pliant, STEC and Seagate SAS and SATA SSDs for ZFS use.
• I would reserve the D2700 for dual-ported 6G disks, assuming you will use multipathing. If not, you're possibly taking a bandwidth hit due to the oversubscription of the SAS link to the host.
• I tend to leave the SSDs meant for ZIL and L2arc inside of the storage head. Coupled with an LSI 9211-8i, it seems safer.
• The Intel and Sandforce-based SATA SSDs were fine in the chassis. No temperature probe issues or anything.
• The HP SAS SSDs (Sandisk/Pliant) require a deep queue that ZFS really can't take advantage of. They are not good pool or cache disks.
• STEC is great with LSI controllers and ZFS... except for price... They are also incompatible with Smart Array P410 controllers. Weird. I have an open ticket with STEC for that.

Which controllers are you using? I probably have detailed data for the combination you have.

Yes... This is possible. So you're saying you have 7 disks in the RAID 5 set, and want to take disk #8, which is currently a spare, and move it to become the 8th member of the RAID 5 array?

If you have the HP Array Configuration Utility (HP ACU) installed, this is very easy. There is a web-based GUI and a command-line option to handle this change. It can even be done online without taking the server down, as long as the right things are in place.

We would need to know the server model, controller type, cache configuration and operating system to be able to give specific details/actions.

A generic CLI setup using the hpacucli utility:

=> ctrl all show config

Smart Array P400 in Slot 9    (sn: P61630D9SUI2C3)

   array A (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)

      logicaldrive 1 (410.1 GB, RAID 1+0, OK)

      physicaldrive 1I:1:1 (port 1I:box 1:bay 1, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:2 (port 1I:box 1:bay 2, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:3 (port 1I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:4 (port 1I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:5 (port 2I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:6 (port 2I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:7 (port 2I:box 1:bay 7, SAS, 146 GB, OK, spare)

In this case, I could remove the spare with: ctrl slot=9 array A remove spares=all

I could then add the now unassigned disk, physicaldrive 2I:1:7, to the existing array with:

ctrl slot=9 logicaldrive 1 add drives=2I:1:7

or

ctrl slot=9 array A add drives=2I:1:7

The difference is that the first would add to the existing RAID 1+0 logical drive (which doesn't make sense since it's an odd-number of drives). The second would result in the array being larger and would give that array 146GB of "unused space", which could then be carved into another logical drive.

You can have different RAID levels on HP logical drives contained on the same group of disks!

In your case, the first command would just expand your RAID 5 array. In Windows, the space would become available. In Linux, it depends...

Edit: The OS is VMWare ESXi 5...

Your options are to run this from the bootable HP SmartStart CD using the GUI or you can install the HP ESXi bundles (here and here) for ESXi and get a usable hpacucli command-line interface to run from an ESXi console. It requires a reboot.