Adding Free Capacity to a Disk Group

Use the Add Free Capacity option to expand the capacity of a selected by adding . The expansion causes additional to be included in the disk group. You can use this free capacity to create additional .

Number of Disk Physical Disks to Choose

To determine the number of disk physical disks to which to add free capacity, consider the following guidelines:

The RAID controller module firmware determines the limit of the number of disk physical disks you can select for a single Add Free Capacity operation. Selecting more than two disk physical disks causes the Add button to become unavailable. However, after you have completed the first Add Free Capacity operation, you can use the option again to add more disk physical disks until the desired capacity is reached.
In a virtual disk, you must add two disk physical disks to make sure of .

Disk Physical Disk Candidate Capacity

When considering disk physical disks to which to add capacity, follow these guidelines:

Make sure that the disk physical disks you are adding to the disk group are of the same . Mixing different disk physical disk types within a single disk group is not permitted.
Whenever possible, select disk physical disks that have a capacity equal to the current capacities of the disk physical disk in the disk group.
If you must add unassigned disk physical disks with a smaller capacity, be aware that the of each disk physical disk currently in the disk group is reduced. Therefore, the disk physical disk capacity is the same across the disk group. If data exists on the current disk physical disks in the disk group that could be lost when the usable capacity is reduced, an error message appears.
If you must add unassigned disk physical disks with a larger capacity, be aware that the usable capacity of the unassigned disk physical disks that you add will be reduced so that they match the current capacities for the disk physical disks in the disk group.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is enclosure loss protection?

Adding Free Capacity

Important

Mixing different disk physical disk types within a single disk group is not permitted.
You cannot cancel this operation after it begins.
Your data remains available during this operation.
The disk group must be in an state before you can perform this operation.
This option works only if unassigned disk physical disks are in the .
When you use the Add Free Capacity (Physical Disks) option to expand the capacity of a selected disk group, existing virtual disks in the disk group do not increase in size. This operation redistributes existing virtual disk capacity over the larger number of disk physical disks.

1	In the Logical View, select a disk group, and then select Disk Group >> Add Free Capacity (Physical Disks). Based on the RAID level and enclosure loss protection of the current disk group, a list of unassigned disk physical disks appears. Note: If the RAID level of the disk group is , , or , and the disk expansion enclosure has enclosure loss protection, the Display only disk physical disks that will ensure enclosure loss protection check box is the default selection.
2	Select disk physical disks up to the allowed maximum number of disk physical disks in the list. Important: You cannot mix different disk physical disk types within a single disk group or virtual disk.
3	Click Add.
4	Click Yes to add the capacity to the disk group.

Logical View Changes

Each virtual disk in the disk group displays an Operation in Progress icon while the data blocks are physically reorganized.
A Defragment Disk Group operation automatically takes place.
If a did not previously exist, a new Free Capacity node is added at the bottom of the tree, showing its RAID-factored capacity.
If one or more Free Capacity nodes previously existed, they are consolidated during the Defragment Disk Group operation to create one Free Capacity node.
The Unconfigured Capacity node updates to reflect the subtraction of the usable capacity of the unassigned disk physical disks that were added to the disk group.

Physical View Changes

The disk physical disks selected for addition to the disk group were previously shown in the Physical View with an Unassigned Physical Disk icon . They now appear with an icon.