Expanding RAID array - VMWare reports all drives In critical array

I added three new hard drives to my HP Proliant 380 and started the expansion process. Now, in VMware, it's reporting that all 8 drives are in critical array and current state is assert. It also shows the warning that the RAID is currently expanding. My VMs booted up fine.

Is this something I need to worry about, as perhaps one of these new drives is bad, or is this hopefully normal behavior since the RAID is expanding?

The three drives I added did report that they need a firmware update, which I plan to do after the expansion is complete. Perhaps this could be the cause?

Thanks.

I added three new hard drives to my HP Proliant 380 and started the expansion process. Now, in VMware, it's reporting that all 8 drives are in critical array and current state is assert. It also shows the warning that the RAID is currently expanding. My VMs booted up fine.

Completely normal, until the REBUILD has been created, and you may find, that after the REBUILD the state remains.

If using a HP Server, and if you are using the OEM HP version of ESXi, you can install array config utils to check the status of your RAID Array. During a rebuild, you are at high risk of a disk failure because of High I/O required to rebuild the array, also performance of the VMs, could be slow, whilst the array rebuilds, which could take a while!

So make sure you do have backups.

To confirm and check, use the Array Configuration Utility provided by your vendor.

The three drives I added did report that they need a firmware update, which I plan to do after the expansion is complete. Perhaps this could be the cause?

You should have completed that first!

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Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert / EE MVE^2)VMware and Virtualization ConsultantCommented: 2016-08-07

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Mr TorturSystem EngineerCommented: 2016-08-08

+1 !

All drives in a same RAID should ideally have same Part Number and same firmware, so firmware update has to be done before adding the new drives to the existing RAID array.

ruhkusAuthor Commented: 2016-08-08

Thanks. The errors went away once the expansion completed.

With regard to the firmware, I agree that I should've done it first, but HP's site was down when I tried to authenticate to download the service pack software, so I opted to do the expansion first. I have the HD rom flash software, but that needs Windows. I assumed I'd need to configure the drives in the array first before WIndows would've seen them, but perhaps that assumption was wrong.

Any caveats with doing the firmware update afterwards now that the expansion is complete?

I assumed I'd need to configure the drives in the array first before WIndows would've seen them

Not necessary to add drives to an array to update them. Just plug them in and keep them unused (out of arrays).

Any caveats with doing the firmware update afterwards now that the expansion is complete?

IMHO you can do it even now...

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert / EE MVE^2)VMware and Virtualization ConsultantCommented: 2016-08-08

BACKUP FIRST!

Expanding RAID array - VMWare reports all drives In critical array

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