Capacity Expansion Overview
Introduction
The StoreOnce 5500 System consists of a head server unit (which contains operating system disks only),
a disk enclosure with 44 TB of pre-configured storage on eleven 4 TB hard disks plus four hot spare
disks, and a 1U supporting shelf to install below the system. It is compatible with HPE standard racks and
is scalable from 15 to 280 disks via 4 disk enclosures.
There are two options for expanding storage:
•
BB941A: StoreOnce 5500 System Capacity Upgrade Disk Pack
The StoreOnce 5500 System (44 TB) Capacity Expansion kit is a pack of eleven 4 TB disks, which are
added to the original disk enclosure in the sequence described in this guide. A maximum of five of
these kits may be used with the first enclosure until all disk bays are full. See
on page 9.
•
BB933A: StoreOnce 5500 System Capacity Upgrade Enclosure with Disks
Once all bays in the disk enclosure are full, it is possible to connect three further Capacity Upgrade
Kits to your StoreOnce 5500 System. Care must be taken to ensure the integrity of the SAS cabling
when connecting additional enclosures. See
Installing additional Capacity Expansion enclosures,
on page 14.
Storage in this shelf may also be expanded using up to five of the BB941A expansion kits.
Planning for the Capacity Expansion
Although the StoreOnce 5500 System remains available and the existing storage remains accessible
during the expansion process, always schedule capacity expansion as a maintenance activity in a quiet
period. Make sure that host users are aware of the expansion process and check to see how any
scheduled jobs, such as replication and tape backup, may be affected by decreased performance.
NOTE:
Adding a third or fourth Capacity Upgrade Kit requires you to daisy chain SAS disk enclosures. You may
wish to consider powering off the StoreOnce 5500 System for these expansions to ensure that the
integrity of the SAS cabling is maintained. If you do not power off, be sure to follow the cabling
instructions carefully in
Cabling Capacity Upgrade enclosures
on page 22.
Expansion process and time considerations
• Storage discovery and parity initialization (not in parallel can take up to 10 hours to complete on an
StoreOnce 5500 System with the maximum disk configuration. With parity initialization in parallel, the
process may take up to 36 hours to complete.
• File system creation and storage addition can take up to 8 hours on an StoreOnce 5500 System with
the maximum disk configuration.
Capacity Expansion Overview
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