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Version: 3.1

Scaling out an existing Portworx Cluster

note

This document presents the non-Kubernetes method of scaling your Portworx cluster. Please refer to the Scale or Restrict page if you are running Portworx on Kubernetes.

Scaling out an existing Portworx Cluster

This document illustrates how to add a new node with attached storage to a Portworx cluster

Display current cluster status

pxctl status
Status: PX is operational
Node ID: a56a4821-6f17-474d-b2c0-3e2b01cd0bc3
IP: X.X.X.0
Local Storage Pool: 2 pools
Pool IO_Priority Size Used Status Zone Region
0 LOW 200 GiB 1.0 GiB Online default default
1 LOW 120 GiB 1.0 GiB Online default default
Local Storage Devices: 2 devices
Device Path Media Type SizLast-Scan
0:1 /dev/mapper/volume-27dbb728 STORAGE_MEDIUM_SSD 200 GiB 08 Jan 17 16:54 UTC
1:1 /dev/mapper/volume-0a31ef46 STORAGE_MEDIUM_SSD 120 GiB 08 Jan 17 16:54 UTC
total - 320 GiB
Cluster Summary
Cluster ID: bb4bcf13-d394-11e6-afae-0242ac110002
Node IP: X.X.X.197 - Capacity: 2.0 GiB/320 GiB Online (This node)
Node IP: 10.99.119.1 - Capacity: 1.2 GiB/100 GiB Online
Node IP: 10.99.117.129 - Capacity: 1.2 GiB/100 GiB Online
Global Storage Pool
Total Used : 4.3 GiB
Total Capacity : 520 GiB

The above cluster has three nodes and 520GiB of total capacity.

Provision a new node with storage

Provision a server or a cloud instance from a provider of your choice with some storage.

In this case, for e.g., this node comes with 100GiB of storage

multipath -ll
volume-a9e55549 (360014055671ce0d20184a619c27b31d0) dm-1   ,IBLOCK
size=100G features='0' hwhandler='1 alua' wp=rw
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=active
|- 2:0:0:0 sdb 8:16 active ready running
`- 3:0:0:0 sdc 8:32 active ready running

The storage is available at /dev/dm-1.

Add this node to the Portworx Cluster

Below is an example of how to run Portworx in a new node so it joins an existing cluster.

  • Follow the instructions in the Installing Portworx as OCI page on starting Portworx in a new node
  • Use the same CLUSTER_ID as the ID of the cluster which you want the node to join for the -c parameter

Note the -s /dev/dm-1 command which picks up the storage that comes with the new node and the same cluster token ensures that the node is added to the same cluster.

Check cluster status

As seen below, the 100G of additional capacity is added to the cluster with total capacity of the cluster going to 620GB

pxctl status
Status: PX is operational
Node ID: a0b87836-f115-4aa2-adbb-c9d0eb597668
IP: X.X.X.0
Local Storage Pool: 1 pool
Pool IO_Priority Size Used Status Zone Region
0 LOW 100 GiB 1.0 GiB Online default default
Local Storage Devices: 1 device
Device Path Media Type Size Last-Scan
0:1 /dev/mapper/volume-a9e55549 STORAGE_MEDIUM_SSD 100 GiB08 Jan 17 21:46 UTC
total - 100 GiB
Cluster Summary
Cluster ID: bb4bcf13-d394-11e6-afae-0242ac110002
Node IP: 10.99.119.1 - Capacity: 1.2 GiB/100 GiB Online
Node IP: X.X.X.197 - Capacity: 2.0 GiB/320 GiB Online
Node IP: X.X.X.185 - Capacity: 0 B/100 GiB Online (This node)
Node IP: 10.99.117.129 - Capacity: 1.2 GiB/100 GiB Online
Global Storage Pool
Total Used : 4.3 GiB
Total Capacity : 620 GiB
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