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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: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-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: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-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: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-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: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-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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