HCX - Increasing HCX Manager Disk Space for HCX Software Version 4.10 or Higher

Products

• VMware HCX

Issue/Introduction

This document provides instructions on how to increase HCX Manager disk space specifically related to Section A) of Knowledge Article 373010 "HCX - Bulk Migration & Replication Assisted vMotion (RAV) scalability guide - for HCX version 4.10 or higher"

Please refer to the above Knowledge Article before making any changes.

Resolution

Section 1) Identify whether HCX Manager disk partitioning is LVM or non-LVM based

 

Step 1: Login to HCX Manager SSH Console using 'admin' user.

 

Step 2: Switch to 'root' user.

 

Step 3: Run following commands on prompt.

# lsblk -l --output SIZE,TYPE,NAME,MOUNTPOINT | grep common

 

Step 4: Identify whether HCX Manager is LVM or non-LVM based on below responses from Step 2.

 

44.4G part sda6 /common      --- non-LVM based, follow Section A

44.4G lvm  vg01-lv01 /common --- LVM based, follow Section B

 

NOTE: for a non-LVM based system that is already scaled to 'medium' the response will be as below.

120G part sdb1 /common_ext

 

 

Section 2) Non-LVM based HCX Manager Disk Setup

• Use Section 2A) for an HCX Manager with default 64GB disk settings.
• Use Section 2B) for an HCX Manager with previously modified 300GB disk settings from Knowledge Article 321604 "HCX - Bulk Migration & Replication Assisted vMotion (RAV) scalability guide - for HCX version 4.7 to 4.9".
• For LVM based HCX Managers skip this Section 2) and go to Section 3).

 

Section 2A) Adding a new disk and common partition space for a Non-LVM based HCX Manager with a Default 64GB Disk Setting

Step 1: Add a 120GB or 300GB disk to both HCX managers based on the desired Medium or Large Scale Form Factor. Refer to Broadcom Knowledge Article 316591 "Creating a new virtual disk for an existing Linux virtual machine".

 

Step 2: Mount the created disk to HCX managers.

 

mount  /dev/sdc1 /common_ext   

 

• Check if /common_ext has been mounted and has the correct type.

 

df -hT

 

• Add an entry to "/etc/fstab" to ensure mounted disk will sustain a reboot and HCX Manager upgrade.

 

vi /etc/fstab   

/dev/sdc1 /common_ext ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev,exec,auto,nouser,async 1 2

 

• Note: Use Linux VI editor to edit/modify the file:

1. Press the ESC key for normal mode.

2. Press "i" Key for insert mode.

3. Press ":q!" keys to exit from the editor without saving a file.

4. Press ":wq!" keys to save the updated file and exit from the editor.

 

Step 3: Stop HCX services as below:

 

# systemctl stop postgresdb

# systemctl stop zookeeper

# systemctl stop kafka

# systemctl stop app-engine

# systemctl stop web-engine

# systemctl stop appliance-management

 

Step 4: Redirect existing contents under "kafka-db" and "postgres-db" to the newly created disk.

 

• Move directory "/common/kafka-db" to "/common/kafka-db.bak".

 

cd  /common

mv kafka-db kafka-db.bak

 

• Create a new directory "/common_ext/kafka-db".

 

cd  /common_ext

mkdir kafka-db

 

• Note: The contents inside Kafka does not require being copied and will be generated after kafka/app-engine services restart.
• Change the ownership and permissions of this directory same as "/common/kafka-db.bak".

 

chmod 755 kafka-db

chown kafka:kafka kafka-db

 

• Make a soft link from "/common/kafka-db" to "/common_ext/kafka-db".

 

cd  /common

ln -s /common_ext/kafka-db kafka-db

 

• Move directory "/common/postgres-db" to "/common/postgres-db.bak" as a backup.

 

cd  /common

mv postgres-db postgres-db.bak

 

• Copy the content for directory "/common/postgres-db.bak" to "/common_ext/postgres-db" and change the ownership to postgres.
• Note: Use "-R" option to change the ownership for "/common_ext/postgres-db" as below:

 

cp -r /common/postgres-db.bak /common_ext/postgres-db

chown -R postgres:postgres /common_ext/postgres-db

 

• Make a soft link from "/common/postgres-db" to "/common_ext/postgres-db".

 

cd  /common

ln -s /common_ext/postgres-db postgres-db

 

Step 5: Start HCX services as below:

 

# systemctl start postgresdb

# systemctl start zookeeper

# systemctl start kafka

# systemctl start app-engine

# systemctl start web-engine

# systemctl start appliance-management

 

 

Section 2b) Increasing existing common_ext disk partition space for a NON-LVM based HCX Manager with a previously modified 300GB disk settings from Knowledge Article 321604 "HCX - Bulk Migration & Replication Assisted vMotion (RAV) scalability guide - for HCX version 4.7 to 4.9"

 

• Verify existing disk space.

 

# fdisk -l | grep 'Disk /dev/sdb'

Disk /dev/sdb: 120 GiB, 128849018880 bytes, 251658240 sectors

 

• Rescan.

 

# echo 1 > /sys/block/sdb/device/rescan

 

• Verify.

 

# fdisk -l | grep 'Disk /dev/sdb'

Disk /dev/sdb: 300 GiB, 322122547200 bytes, 629145600 sectors

 

• Resize /common_ext.

 

# fdisk /dev/sdb

 

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.37.4).

Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.

Be careful before using the write command.

 

This disk is currently in use - repartitioning is probably a bad idea.

It's recommended to umount all file systems, and swapoff all swap

partitions on this disk.

 

Command (m for help): d

 

Selected partition 1

Partition 1 has been deleted.

 

Command (m for help): n

Partition type

   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)

   e   extended (container for logical partitions)

Select (default p):

 

Using default response p.

Partition number (1-4, default 1):

First sector (2048-629145599, default 2048):

Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-629145599, default 629145599):

 

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 300 GiB.

Partition #1 contains a ext3 signature.

 

Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o: No

 

Command (m for help): w

 

The partition table has been altered.

Syncing disks.

 

# resize2fs /dev/sdb1

 

 

Section 3) LVM based HCX Manager Disk Setup

• Use Section 3A) for an HCX Manager with default 64GB disk settings.
• Use Section 3B) for an HCX Manager with previously modified 300GB disk settings from Knowledge Article 321604 "HCX - Bulk Migration & Replication Assisted vMotion (RAV) scalability guide - for HCX version 4.7 to 4.9".
• For Non-LVM based HCX Managers Section 2) should have been used and this Section 3) should be skipped.

 

Section 3A) Adding a new disk and common partition space for an LVM based HCX Manager with a Default 64GB Disk Setting

Step 1: Add a 120GB or 300GB disk to both HCX managers based on the desired Medium or Large Scale Form Factor. Refer to Broadcom Knowledge Article 316591 "Creating a new virtual disk for an existing Linux virtual machine" for creating a new virtual disk to an existing Linux virtual machine.

 

Step 2: Login to HCX Manager SSH Console using 'admin' user.

 

Step 3: Switch to 'root' user.

 

Step 4: Verify current partition with '/common' mount path.

 

# df -h

 

Filesystem             Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/root              7.6G  4.0G  3.3G  55% /

devtmpfs               5.9G     0  5.9G   0% /dev

tmpfs                  5.9G   64K  5.9G   1% /dev/shm

tmpfs                  2.4G  644K  2.4G   1% /run

tmpfs                  4.0M     0  4.0M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup

/dev/sda2               10M  2.0M  8.1M  20% /boot/efi

/dev/sda4              7.6G   92K  7.3G   1% /slot2

/dev/mapper/vg01-lv01   44G  3.0G   39G   8% /common

tmpfs                  1.2G     0  1.2G   0% /run/user/1000

 

Step 5: To rescan the disks on the HCX Manager execute the following command.

 

# echo 1 > /sys/block/sdb/device/rescan

 

Step 6: To create and add a partition to the existing '/common' partition using LVM execute the following commands.

 

# pvcreate /dev/sdb

 

Physical volume "/dev/sdb" successfully created.

 

# vgextend vg01 /dev/sdb

 

Volume group "vg01" successfully extended

 

# lvm lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/vg01/lv01

 

Size of logical volume vg01/lv01 changed from 44.39 GiB (11364 extents) to <164.39 GiB (42083 extents).

Logical volume vg01/lv01 successfully resized.

 

# resize2fs -p /dev/mapper/vg01-lv01

 

resize2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)

Filesystem at /dev/mapper/vg01-lv01 is mounted on /common; on-line resizing required

old_desc_blocks = 3, new_desc_blocks = 11

The filesystem on /dev/mapper/vg01-lv01 is now 43092992 (4k) blocks long.

 

Step 7: Verify if the partition has been extended.

 

# df -h

 

Filesystem             Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/root              7.6G  4.0G  3.3G  55% /

devtmpfs               5.9G     0  5.9G   0% /dev

tmpfs                  5.9G   64K  5.9G   1% /dev/shm

tmpfs                  2.4G  652K  2.4G   1% /run

tmpfs                  4.0M     0  4.0M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup

/dev/sda2               10M  2.0M  8.1M  20% /boot/efi

/dev/sda4              7.6G   92K  7.3G   1% /slot2

/dev/mapper/vg01-lv01  162G  3.1G  152G   2% /common

tmpfs                  1.2G     0  1.2G   0% /run/user/1000

 

 

Section 3b) Increase existing common disk partition space for LVM based HCX Manager with a previously modified 300GB disk settings from Knowledge Article 321604 "HCX - Bulk Migration & Replication Assisted vMotion (RAV) scalability guide - for HCX version 4.7 to 4.9"

 

Step 1: Login to HCX Manager SSH Console using 'admin' user.

 

Step 2: Switch to 'root' user.

 

Step 3: Verify current partition with '/common' mount path.

 

# df -h

 

Filesystem             Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/root              7.7G  4.2G  3.2G  57% /

devtmpfs                12G     0   12G   0% /dev

tmpfs                   12G   64K   12G   1% /dev/shm

tmpfs                  4.7G  668K  4.7G   1% /run

tmpfs                  4.0M     0  4.0M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup

/dev/sda2               10M  2.0M  8.1M  20% /boot/efi

/dev/sda3              7.6G  4.0G  3.3G  56% /slot1

/dev/mapper/vg01-lv01  162G  6.0G  149G   4% /common

tmpfs                  2.4G     0  2.4G   0% /run/user/1000

 

Step 4: To rescan the disks on the HCX Manager execute the following command.

 

# echo 1 > /sys/block/sdb/device/rescan

 

Step 5: Verify increased disk space.

 

# fdisk -l | grep /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 300 GiB, 322122547200 bytes, 629145600 sectors

 

Step 6: Increase Physical Volume.

 

# pvresize /dev/sdb

  Physical volume "/dev/sdb" changed

  1 physical volume(s) resized or updated / 0 physical volume(s) not resized

 

Step 7: Extend Volume Group.

 

# lvm lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/vg01/lv01

  Size of logical volume vg01/lv01 changed from <164.39 GiB (42083 extents) to <344.39 GiB (88163 extents).

  Logical volume vg01/lv01 successfully resized.

 

Step 8: Resize partition space.

 

# resize2fs -p /dev/mapper/vg01-lv01

    resize2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)

    Filesystem at /dev/mapper/vg01-lv01 is mounted on /common; on-line resizing required

    old_desc_blocks = 11, new_desc_blocks = 22

    The filesystem on /dev/mapper/vg01-lv01 is now 90278912 (4k) blocks long.

 

Step 9: Verify increase partition space.

 

# df -h

 

Filesystem             Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/root              7.7G  4.2G  3.2G  57% /

devtmpfs                12G     0   12G   0% /dev

tmpfs                   12G   64K   12G   1% /dev/shm

tmpfs                  4.7G  672K  4.7G   1% /run

tmpfs                  4.0M     0  4.0M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup

/dev/sda2               10M  2.0M  8.1M  20% /boot/efi

/dev/sda3              7.6G  4.0G  3.3G  56% /slot1

/dev/mapper/vg01-lv01  339G  6.0G  319G   2% /common

tmpfs                  2.4G     0  2.4G   0% /run/user/1000