Extending a MD3220i with a MD1200 enclosure / Guidelines?

Here is the cabling/expanding instructions from the user guides online. Hope that helps!

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/md3200i/en/DG/HTML/hardware.htm#wp1182700

"Thank you. I know that I can turn off all enclosures and then cable them cold. But the MD3220i is advertised with a hot plug enclosure functionality "...hot plug additional storage enclosures without shutting down the system". I am looking for the documentation that explains how to do this in a supported way."

did you ever discover the answer for this? Is it possible to hot plug a MD1200 into a running MD32XX without shutting down and if so, what is the procedure?

Hi, No it is not possible.
The PowerVault MD32xx enclosure can be cascaded to as many as seven MD12xx expansion enclosures. The enclosures must be "cold-add." The MD32xx and all MD12xx expansion enclosures must be powered down for expansion cabling.
WARNING:
Cascading enclosures that have preexisting data on them can potentially be a data-destructive operation. The metadata format (DACstore) of configured drives in the MD32xx may differ from the Disk Data Format used on configured drives in the MD12xx enclosure, especially if the enclosure was previously attached to a PowerEdge RAID Controller or other dissimilar controller. Backups should be completed prior to any configuration changes to protect the integrity of the data.
Enclosure Power-Up Sequence
The following procedure should be followed for the power-up sequence of an MD32xx with attached MD12xx expansion enclosures.

Turn on the MD12xx expansion enclosure(s). Wait for the expansion status LED to light blue on each enclosure.
Turn on the MD32xx and wait for the status LED to indicate that the unit is ready:
If the status LEDs light a solid amber, the MD32xx is still coming online.
If the status LEDs are blinking amber, there is an error that can be viewed using MDSM.
If the status LEDs light a solid blue, the MD32xx is ready.
After the MD32xx is online and ready, turn on any attached host systems.
The power-down sequence should done in the reverse order, with emphasis on a clean shutdown of the hosts and at least a ten second interval thereafter to insure that controller cache has been completely flushed

REgards

well... we were talking about plugging in new MD1200 (with no data) into a running MD3200i (dual controller) and we decided to just try it .....so with MD3200i running, we turned on the MD1200 and let it spin up... then plugged the two cables into the MD3200i and we saw in the MDSM the system instantly recognized the additional drives and we were able to configure them with no problem from there... I agree you definitely would not want to do this with any data on the MD1200...but seemed to work ok for us with a clean MD1200.. your mileage my vary...

Lucky boy ;)
As you say never with data in MD1200 but even if it was empty, too risky for the MD3200i.
Regards

Just returned from something along these lines.

We have a Dell MD3200 with 2x RCM's connected redundantly via direct SAS to two R710's using Dell 6 Gbps SAS HBA's. The MD3200 has an MD1200 enclosure connected as well.

We just purchased an additional MD1220 -- brand new from Dell.

Racked the MD1220. Powered it up. Blue light on the front. No HDD lights lit and will not light until connected to an RCM or a host adapter.

Connected via the cascade style cabling diagram the MD1220 to the MD1200, which is connected to the MD3200. We decided to connect just one EMM first.

The SAS ports on the MD1220 and MD1200 EMM's lit up.

Watching MDSM as we cascade connected one EMM on the MD1220 to the EMM on the MD1200. On the Summary Tab, the "Enclosures:" ticked up from 2 to 3. Within a few seconds after that the "Physical Disks:" starting increasing as the drives were recognized. Within 10 - 15 seconds all disks were recognized. MDSM then detected a Path Redundancy issue. We plugged in the second EMM, clicked on the error message, clicked on the button to "Recheck" a few times and within another 15 seconds the Path Redundancy issue was gone and the array status was back to optimal.

Running FW version 07.75.14.61 on the MD3200.

-Weaver

"Just returned from something along these lines.

We have a Dell MD3200 with 2x RCM's connected redundantly via direct SAS to two R710's using Dell 6 Gbps SAS HBA's. The MD3200 has an MD1200 enclosure connected as well.

We just purchased an additional MD1220 -- brand new from Dell.

Racked the MD1220. Powered it up. Blue light on the front. No HDD lights lit and will not light until connected to an RCM or a host adapter.

Connected via the cascade style cabling diagram the MD1220 to the MD1200, which is connected to the MD3200. We decided to connect just one EMM first.

The SAS ports on the MD1220 and MD1200 EMM's lit up.

Watching MDSM as we cascade connected one EMM on the MD1220 to the EMM on the MD1200. On the Summary Tab, the "Enclosures:" ticked up from 2 to 3. Within a few seconds after that the "Physical Disks:" starting increasing as the drives were recognized. Within 10 - 15 seconds all disks were recognized. MDSM then detected a Path Redundancy issue. We plugged in the second EMM, clicked on the error message, clicked on the button to "Recheck" a few times and within another 15 seconds the Path Redundancy issue was gone and the array status was back to optimal.

Running FW version 07.75.14.61 on the MD3200.

-Weaver"

We do these hot all the time with MD3000i's..... I always assumed the function was there for the newer PV's as well. On the older MDSM, there is an option for exporting/importing diskgroups.

This option allows you to move expansion enclosures around with live data on them as long as the diskgroup(s) are located intact, not spaning drives on other enclosures.

I can confirm you can add a unified MD1200 to a hot unified MD3200i. I did find that it was quicker to plug in a single SAS cable, spin the MD1200 up, let the MD3200i show a lost redundant path, and then connect the second SAS cable. But that's just me.

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