The following upgrade paths are available for ECS EX500 clusters.
| Current Cluster Configuration | Available Upgrade Path |
|---|---|
| EX500 nodes are ‘half populated’ with (12) 8TB HDDs installed |
|
| EX500 nodes are ‘fully populated’ with (24) 8TB HDDs installed | Add one* or more EX500 chassis to the cluster with the same (24 HDD) drive-count per node. |
| * The minimum number of EX500 that can be added to the cluster depends on the existing rack and cluster configuration, as outlined in the following section. In some cases, the minimum number of additional EX500 chassis can be as high as five. | |
Expansion Constraints
- If one or more ECS racks has fewer than (12) EX500 chassis present, up to N chassis can be added to the existing configuration without adding racks:
N = (#_of_existing_racks x 12) - (#_of_existing_chassis)
- If all ECS racks are full (with 12 EX500 each), any chassis expansions will require one or more additional racks. When adding new/additional racks to the cluster configuration, each rack must have a minimum of (4) EX5000D chassis.
The best practice when expanding by adding chassis is to fill up existing racks first, before adding additional racks.
Expansions that entail adding ECS nodes may require adding one or more H2 NGs and racks (with networking). Refer to the table titled "ECS EX500 Nodes and H2 NGs per Rack" in ECS EX500 Cluster Configurations to determine whether the target number of ECS chassis requires additional infrastructure.