The following upgrade paths are available for ECS EX5000D clusters.
| Current Cluster Configuration | Available Upgrade Path |
|---|---|
| EX5000D nodes are ‘half populated’ with (25) 16TB HDDs installed |
|
| EX5000D nodes are ‘fully populated’ with (50) 16TB HDDs installed | Add one* or more EX5000D chassis to the cluster with the same (50 HDD) drive-count per node. |
| * The minimum number of EX5000D that can be added to the cluster depends on the existing rack and cluster configuration, as outlined below. In some cases, the minimum number of additional EX5000D chassis can be as high as four. | |
Expansions that entail adding ECS chassis (and nodes) may require adding one or more ECS Connection Managers and racks (with networking). Refer to "ECS Nodes and Load Balancers per Rack" in ECS EX5000D Cluster Configurations to determine whether the target number of ECS chassis requires additional infrastructure.
Expansion Constraints when Existing Cluster Capacity Utilization is Under 80%
- If one or more ECS racks has fewer than (6) EX5000D chassis present, up to N chassis can be added to the existing configuration without adding racks:
N = (#_of_existing_racks x 6) - (#_of_existing_chassis)
- If all ECS racks are full (with 6 EX5000D 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.
Expansion Constraints when Existing Cluster Capacity Utilization is Over 80%
- For in-rack expansions: ECS racks must have (4) EX5000D chassis present to support the addition of (2) EX5000D chassis.
- For expansions into additional racks: The minimum number of EX5000D to be added into the ECS cluster (via additional racks) must be equal to or greater than the chassis count in the first (base) rack.