New disks for AS/400
I want to add new disks to my AS/400. I have 6x36Gb in RAID 5. I want to add 2x146Gb in mirror.
My question is. Would it be added to the ASP 1, or I must create a different ASP (ASP 2?) for the new disks as the RAID configuration is not the same.
Software/Hardware used:
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ASKED:
January 15, 2010 9:50 AM
UPDATED:
January 20, 2010 3:16 PM
Answer Wiki:
I'm going to take a shot here, but don't bank on this. Someone with the IBM system congfigurator software should really do this. Don't try this unless you are willing to return to the original configuration and do a complete reload.
Do a full(option 21) save to tape. I'd do two fulls myself. Verify your alternate IPL device is set to your tape drive(s). Set your system in manual mode and boot to DST. Stop raid. I'm reasonably sure you cannot have different size drives in the same raid set but you should be able to end raid, then add the two new drives to the ASP and mirror them as the load source, then start raid on the other drives and restore your system and data from tape. I know I've seen this configuration I just can't tell you all of the exact menu options without the screens in front of me.
If you don't have a business partner that can help with this, try it and if it doesn't work you can always remove the new ones from the ASP and restore from tape.
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I need to dig into details in order to provide a complete How-To answer.
However, the basic answer is that you can add the two mirrored drives to ASP 1 (or the base system ASP, if that’s what you expect); you don’t need to create a new ASP for them.
Beyond that is the question of the proper procedure for getting it done correctly. You might want to wait for someone who does it on a regular basis. I do it too seldom to have it in mind.
Tom
One question to answer — why would you want to add two mirrored drives to the same ASP that already has a RAID set configured? Practically speaking, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. I don’t really see much advantage of adding such relatively large drives in with drives that are almost the same size in total as the added capacity you’ll gain.
I suspect that there’s going to be a significant imbalance in usage between the two sizes. You might be better served by deliberately creating a user ASP. You could assign specific libraries or objects to that ASP. I’d want to look at object types that would best fit, perhaps large objects that are less frequently accessed and possibly in sequential mode, for example.
Mixing the sizes and types of protection will likely cause disk management to put effort into keeping individual objects completely on one set or the other anyway. I’m not sure you’d want objects scatter-loaded across the two sets.
Now, if you wanted to add two mirrored 36GB drives to a RAID set of 146GB drives, I’d be far more comfortable with DanD’s suggestion to mirror the load-source. But going the opposite way isn’t giving me a very good feeling. (Load-source mirroring is indeed the most common setup.)
Tom
DanD and Tom,
Great, thorough answers here — thanks for helping out!