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Version: 3.2

Maintenance commands in FlashArray

Service level commands are related to maintenance of drives and drive pools. The most common cases would be for Disk addition

Here are some of the commands that are needed for maintenance operations

Some general maintenance commands​

Enter Maintenance Mode​

Run the following command:

pxctl service maintenance --enter

This takes Portworx out of an "Operational" state for a given node. Perform whatever physical maintenance is needed.

RestartPortworx​

Run "docker restart px-enterprise". This restarts the Portworx fabric on a given node.

Exit Maintenance Mode​

Run pxctl service maintenance --exit. This puts Portworx back in to "Operational" state for a given node.

Drive management example​

The drive management commands are organized under pxctl service drive command

pxctl service drive
NAME:
   pxctl service drive - Storage drive maintenance

USAGE:
   pxctl service drive command [command options] [arguments...]

COMMANDS:
     show           Show drives
     add            Add storage
     rebalance, rs  Rebalance storage

OPTIONS:
   --help, -h  show help

Here is a typical workflow on how to identify and replace drives.

Show the list of drives in the system​

pxctl service drive show
PX drive configuration:
Pool ID: 0
	IO_Priority: LOW
	Size: 7.3 TiB
	Status: Online
	Has meta data: No
	Drives:
	1: /dev/sde, 3.0 GiB allocated of 7.3 TiB, Online
Pool ID: 1
	IO_Priority: HIGH
	Size: 1.7 TiB
	Status: Online
	Has meta data: Yes
	Drives:
	1: /dev/sdj, 1.0 GiB allocated of 1.7 TiB, Online

Add drives to the cluster​

Step 1: Enter Maintenance Mode​

pxctl service  maintenance --enter
This is a disruptive operation, PX will restart in maintenance mode.
Are you sure you want to proceed ? (Y/N): y
Entering maintenance mode...

Step 2: Add drive to the system​

For e.g., Add drive /dev/sdb to the Portworx cluster

pxctl service drive add --drive /dev/sdb --operation start
Adding device  /dev/sdb ...
"Drive add done: Storage rebalance is in progress"

Step 3: Rebalance the storage pool​

Pool rebalance is a must. It spreads data across all available drives in the pool.

Check the rebalance status and wait for completion.

pxctl service drive add --drive /dev/sdb --operation status
"Drive add: Storage rebalance running: 1 out of about 9 chunks balanced (2 considered),  89% left"
pxctl service drive add --drive /dev/sdb --operation status
"Drive add: Storage rebalance complete"

In case drive add operation did not start a rebalance, start it manually. For e.g., if the drive was added to pool 0:

pxctl service drive rebalance --poolID 0 --operation start
Done: "Pool 0: Balance is running"

Check the rebalance status and wait for completion.

pxctl service drive rebalance --poolID 0 --operation status
Done: "Pool 0: Balance is not running"

Step 4: Exit Maintenance mode​

pxctl service  maintenance --exit
Exiting maintenance mode...

Check if the drive is added using drive show command:

pxctl service drive show
PX drive configuration:

Pool ID: 0
	IO_Priority: LOW
	Size: 15 TiB
	Status: Online
	Has meta data: No
	Drives:
	2: /dev/sdb, 0 B allocated of 7.3 TiB, Online
	1: /dev/sde, 3.0 GiB allocated of 7.3 TiB, Online
Pool ID: 1
	IO_Priority: HIGH
	Size: 1.7 TiB
	Status: Online
	Has meta data: Yes
	Drives:
	1: /dev/sdj, 1.0 GiB allocated of 1.7 TiB, Online

Storage pool maintenance​

Storage pools are automatically created by selected like disks in terms of capacity and capability. These pools are classified as High/Medium/Low based on IOPS and latency.

Help for storage pool commands is available as:

pxctl service pool -h
NAME:
   pxctl service pool - Storage pool maintenance

USAGE:
   pxctl service pool command [command options] [arguments...]

COMMANDS:
     show    Show pools
     update  Update pool properties

OPTIONS:
   --help, -h  show help

List Storage pools​

This is an alias for /opt/pwx/bin/pxctl service drive show

pxctl service pool show
PX drive configuration:
Pool ID: 0
	IO_Priority: LOW
	Size: 15 TiB
	Status: Online
	Has meta data: No
	Drives:
	1: /dev/sdc, 3.0 GiB allocated of 7.3 TiB, Online
	2: /dev/sdb, 0 B allocated of 7.3 TiB, Online
Pool ID: 1
	IO_Priority: HIGH
	Size: 1.7 TiB
	Status: Online
	Has meta data: Yes
	Drives:
	1: /dev/sdj, 1.0 GiB allocated of 1.7 TiB, Online

Update Storage pool​

pxctl service update -h
NAME:
   pxctl service pool update - Update pool properties

USAGE:
   pxctl service pool update [command options] poolID

OPTIONS:
   --io_priority value  io_priority: low|medium|high
   --labels value       comma separated name=value pairs (default: "NoLabel")
   --resize             extend pool to maximum available physical storage

During create each pool is benchmarked and assigned an io_prioriy classification automatically - high/medium/low. However, sometimes it is desirable for the operator to explicitly designate a classification. To update pool 0 priority classification to 'MEDIUM'

pxctl service pool update 0 --io_priority medium
Pool properties updated

A pool can also be resized (extended) if the underlying physical storage (drive/partition/volumes) get resized. It can be extended to use all available physical storage. To resize pool 0

Step 1: Enter Maintenance mode​

pxctl service  maintenance --enter
This is a disruptive operation, PX will restart in maintenance mode.
Are you sure you want to proceed ? (Y/N): y
Entering maintenance mode...

Step 2: Resize drive(s)​

Use appropriate utility - fdisk, lvresize, aws cli etc. to resize the drive. If the pool is backed by more than one drive, each drive in the pool needs to be resized first before the pool can be resized.

Step 3: Resize pool​

pxctl service pool update 0 --resize
Pool properties updated

Step 3: Exit Maintenance mode​

pxctl service  maintenance --exit
Exiting maintenance mode...
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