can I grow a meta device for a windows server

Marc I think I'll call you when in trouble with M$

In addition, you will have to run diskpart extend command. there is a Microsoft article on how to use diskpart. it should occur online and you should see the expansion right away.

FYI
if you have a bit of bad luck and the physical disk shows the new larger space but the volume still shows the old smaller space, then the MBR partition table got updated but not the NTFS bootsector on the partition. if that happens contact either emc or microsoft support to obtain a non-public microsoft tool called fsextend to correct this issue.

Thanks a lot to all the responses, the explanations were very thorough and left me with no further questions. I really appreciate the help.

If you found useful informations, could you please mark the best answer (the correct answer) and maybe some usefull ones ?? It will help other users in finding the right answer .. And will help who replied in lifting them in forum charts

So, I thought I was safe and would have no further questions, however I have never dissolved a BVC meta device before, and am getting an error I was hoping someone could assist with. Is there an extra step that needs to be done to dissolve BCV meta's? I unmasked them, made them not_ready, and then unmapped them. When I try to dissovle then, here is the error I get:

COMMIT monitoring failed

Error occurred while Committing
The state of a snap session is blocking the activation of the new configuration. Please see the API log file.


Here is the BCV pair info, if it helps at all.

BCV Pair Information
{
Standard (STD) Device Symmetrix Name : 01A9
Standard (STD) Device Serial ID : Not Visible
Standard (STD) Device Group Name : Not/Grouped
Standard (STD) Composite Group Name : Not/Grouped

BCV Device Symmetrix Name : 0579
BCV Device Serial ID : Not Visible
BCV Device Associated Group Name : Not/Associated
BCV Device Associated CG Name : Not/Associated

BCV Device Status : Not Ready (NR BCV)

State of Pair ( STD <=\=> BCV ) : Split
Time of Last BCV Action : Thu Apr 5 17:23:57 2007


Thanks in advance for any help.

Sorry, as you can see I have not used the forum too often. I updated the correct and useful posts.

was this BCV used as a source for clone/snap ?

run symclone -sid 123 list

No, there has only been one clone operation since we got the DMX setup, and that was me testing on some other STD devices. This meta that I am unable to dissolve, was only used for mirroring a production volume in the past. This particular meta was last used in April 2007. Here is the symclone out put though:

root@wwwpdcdsoracd01 # symclone -sid 1031 list

Symmetrix ID: xxxxxxxx1031

Source Device Target Device Status
------------------------- ---------------------- -------------
Protected
Sym Tracks Sym CGDP SRC <=> TGT
------------------------- ---------------------- -------------
090B 0 090F X... Copied

Total --------
Tracks 0
MB(s) 0.0

Message was edited by:
Mark (Moderator)
Edited Symm Serial Number

You will have to re-dissolve the R5-BCV meta, and delete the RAID5 BCV hypers. Then create new (unprotected) BCVs and form a striped meta.

You'll need to be careful that the new BCV hyper size is exactly the same as those of the volume you want to expand, so use commands such as "symdev list -cyl" to get the size in cylinders, and use the cylinder count when creating the new volumes.

Meta stripe size is always 2 cylinders, should you need to specify that.

In theory the unprotected BCVs will "fit" in the space freed up by deleting the R5 volumes - with some space left over (since there's no parity).

This is an important point to note - during the meta volume expand your data resides on unprotected disks. Therefore its vital to have a full backup before starting, incase a disk fails or some other problem occurs.

Hope that helps!
Marc

So by spending a little more time searching the forums, I found that I needed to do a symmir cancel, on all of my BCV's that needed to be dissolved, to remove the STD relationship. Once this was done, I was able to dissolve the meta's without any problems, and finally create one large 32 device BCV.

I thought I was good to go, but a short time later found that BCV+R-5, is not usable for expanding a striped meta. My question now, is there any type of conversion I can do on my BCV+R-5, to get it to a usable format?

Thank you for the info MarkT. I'll need to look through the docs, I've never deleted hypers and re-created them before, I assume this was something EMC did when they stood up our DMX. Is this just another symconfigure operation, do I just create a file containing the hypers to removed and point symconfigure to it? Once the hypers are re-created, and I need to create the meta again, do I specify "config=2-way-mir-bcv", is the the option for an unprotected BCV?

Thanks again for everyones help, I appreciate it.

EMC can do this for you - and for peace of mind you may prefer it to be this way!

Your CE will be able to advise, and if EMC do the reconfig we'll have better control of the layout of the new volumes which may be important for performance considerations. However, for a "use-once" BCV that possibly doesn't matter...

If you do decide to do it yourself, its worth printing out the details of the volumes you're about to delete (symdev show ). Make a note of the "Disk Group Number". This is how you choose what type (or group) of drives your devices get created on, and is especially important if you have mixed drive types (eg fast 15K 73GB drives for Oracle, and slower 500GB drives for DW).

Anyway, to delete a volume the symconfigure syntax is simply:

delete dev ;

You may need to unmap the devices from their FA port(s) before this will work though. I'll leave that as an exercise for you!

Then create your new volumes. The config= option for an unprotected BCV is simply "BCV". A 2-way-mir-bcv is just that, a mirrored (RAID1) BCV.

create dev count=n, size= , emulation=FBA, config=BCV, disk_group=x;

symconfigure now tells you the volume numbers of your new devices, but they're usually at the end of the binfile - so you can do a "symdev list -cyl" to see them.

Finally create your meta.

This BCV meta used for expanding a striped meta doesn't need to be presented to a host - so there's no need to map it to an FA port.

Hope that helps!
Marc

If it helps, this is the metadevice I need to grow:

root@wwwpdcssoracd01 # symdev show 091D | more

Symmetrix ID: xxxxxxxx1031

Device Physical Name : Not Visible

Device Symmetrix Name : 091D
Device Serial ID : N/A
Symmetrix ID : xxxxxxxx1031

Attached BCV Device : N/A

Attached VDEV TGT Device : N/A

Vendor ID : EMC
Product ID : SYMMETRIX
Product Revision : 5771
Device WWN : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx393144
Device Emulation Type : FBA
Device Defined Label Type: N/A
Device Defined Label : N/A
Device Sub System Id : 0x000A

Device Block Size : 512

Device Capacity
{
Cylinders : 1189760
Tracks : 17846400
512-byte Blocks : 1142169600
MegaBytes : 557700
KiloBytes : 571084800
}

Device Configuration : 2-Way Mir (Meta Head,
Non-Exclusive Access)

Device is WORM Enabled : No
Device is WORM Protected : No

SCSI-3 Persistent Reserve: Disabled

Dynamic Spare Invoked : No

Dynamic RDF Capability : None

STAR Mode : No
STAR Recovery Capability : None
STAR Recovery State : NA

Device Service State : Normal

Device Status : Ready (RW)
Device SA Status : Ready (RW)

Front Director Paths (2):
{
----------------------------------------------------------------------
POWERPATH DIRECTOR PORT LUN
--------- ---------- ---- -------- ---------
PdevName Type Type Num Sts VBUS TID SYMM Host
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Not Visible N/A FA 08B:0 RW 000 00 01D N/A
Not Visible N/A FA 09B:0 RW 000 00 01D N/A
}

Meta Configuration : Striped
Meta Stripe Size : 960k (2 Cylinders)
Meta Device Members (32) :
{
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BCV DATA RDF DATA
---------------------------- --------------------------
Sym Cap Std Inv BCV Inv Pair R1 Inv R2 Inv Pair
Dev (MB) Tracks Tracks State Tracks Tracks State
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--> 091D 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
091E 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
091F 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0920 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0921 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0922 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0923 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0924 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0925 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0926 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0927 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0928 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0929 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
092A 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
092B 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
092C 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
092D 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
092E 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
092F 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0930 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0931 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0932 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0933 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0934 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0935 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0936 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0937 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0938 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
0939 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
093A 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
093B 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
093C 17428 - - N/A - - N/A
----------------------------------------------------------------------
557700 - - - -
}

Mirror Set Type : [Data,Data,N/A,N/A]

Mirror Set DA Status : [RW,RW,N/A,N/A]

Mirror Set Inv. Tracks : [0,0,0,0]

Back End Disk Director Information
{
Hyper Type : Data
Hyper Status : Ready (RW)
Disk [Director, Interface, TID] : [02A, C, 9]
Disk Director Volume Number : 102 (0x65)
Hyper Number : 5
Disk Capacity : 140014m
Disk Group Number : 6

Hyper Type : Data
Hyper Status : Ready (RW)
Disk [Director, Interface, TID] : [16A, C, 9]
Disk Director Volume Number : 102 (0x65)
Hyper Number : 5
Disk Capacity : 140014m
Disk Group Number : 6
}

Message was edited by:
Mark (Moderator)
Blanked Symmetrix Serial Number and WWN

The posts everyone have been making, are so informative and thorough that I feel terrible that I still have questions. I think I am set, I just hope MarkT or anyone will confirm my data. I won't post the whole output (since it's 32 devices), but here is what the metahead device currently looks like before I dissolve the meta and delete the devs (if the whole output is needed before I anyone can help, I can post it, just wanted to keep the post as small as possible):

Device : 0579 (M)
{
--------------------------------------------------------------
Disk DA Hyper Member Spare Disk
DA :IT Vol# Num Cap(MB) Num Status Status Grp# Cap(MB)
--------------------------------------------------------------
01A:C10 110 49 2493 1 RW N/A 2 286102
15A:C10 175 49 2493 5 RW N/A 2 286102
01B:D10 381 49 2493 2 RW N/A 2 286102
15B:D10 381 49 2493 6 RW N/A 2 286102
02C:D10 316 49 2493 3 RW N/A 2 286102
16C:D10 381 49 2493 7 RW N/A 2 286102
02D:C10 175 49 2493 4 RW N/A 2 286102
16D:C10 175 49 2493 8 RW N/A 2 286102


If I understand correctly, all I need to do is run the 4 symconfigures below:
dissolve meta dev 0579;
delete dev 0579:0598;
create dev count=32, size=2493, emulation=FBA, config=BCV, disk_group=2;
form meta from dev $NEW_DEV_CREATED config=striped , stripe_size = 2 cyl;
add dev $NEW_DEV_CREATED2:$NEW_DEV_CREATED32 to meta $NEW_DEV_CREATED;

Again, thanks for the assistance...