Expanding iSCSI LUN Size

Question answered via twitter (it is non-destructive).

Can you expand while the data on the LUN is being accessed? I have an iSCSI LUN connected to my file server and wanted to expand it. Do I have to stop the sharing in Windows and tell users not to access those network drives while it expands?

helo227 wrote:
Can you expand while the data on the LUN is being accessed? I have an iSCSI LUN connected to my file server and wanted to expand it. Do I have to stop the sharing in Windows and tell users not to access those network drives while it expands?

I believe the ReadyNAS interface strongly recommends that you disconnect all initiators before starting the expansion.

While the LUN expansion worked flawlessly, I did run into an issue where I couldn't get OSX to expand the HFS+ partition to match the new volume size. This is a separate issue that I worked around by reformatting the partition and copying data back from a backup. This isn't likely to be a problem with other file systems, and I'm still not entirely sure why I wasn't able to grow the HFS+ partition.

Thanks. I was really hoping to do it on the fly but it makes sense to disconnect the initiators.

nightstrm wrote:

helo227 wrote: Can you expand while the data on the LUN is being accessed? I have an iSCSI LUN connected to my file server and wanted to expand it. Do I have to stop the sharing in Windows and tell users not to access those network drives while it expands? I believe the ReadyNAS interface strongly recommends that you disconnect all initiators before starting the expansion. While the LUN expansion worked flawlessly, I did run into an issue where I couldn't get OSX to expand the HFS+ partition to match the new volume size. This is a separate issue that I worked around by reformatting the partition and copying data back from a backup. This isn't likely to be a problem with other file systems, and I'm still not entirely sure why I wasn't able to grow the HFS+ partition.

Did you ever get the OS X to expand the partition successfully w/o having to reformat each time you expand? I'm backing up data to backblaze so I wouldn't want to restart the backups/seeding every time. :( Basically if I expand and I go to disk utility to drag the partition size down to max out the vol and hit apply, it just reverts back to the original size (w/o any error nor feedback).

consumedsoul wrote:

nightstrm wrote: helo227 wrote: Can you expand while the data on the LUN is being accessed? I have an iSCSI LUN connected to my file server and wanted to expand it. Do I have to stop the sharing in Windows and tell users not to access those network drives while it expands? I believe the ReadyNAS interface strongly recommends that you disconnect all initiators before starting the expansion. While the LUN expansion worked flawlessly, I did run into an issue where I couldn't get OSX to expand the HFS+ partition to match the new volume size. This is a separate issue that I worked around by reformatting the partition and copying data back from a backup. This isn't likely to be a problem with other file systems, and I'm still not entirely sure why I wasn't able to grow the HFS+ partition. Did you ever get the OS X to expand the partition successfully w/o having to reformat each time you expand? I'm backing up data to backblaze so I wouldn't want to restart the backups/seeding every time. :( Basically if I expand and I go to disk utility to drag the partition size down to max out the vol and hit apply, it just reverts back to the original size (w/o any error nor feedback).

Unfortunately not. In searching around the Internet, I found a couple posts recommending iPartition (http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php), but I could never find anything definitive that it would work. Not sure why the partition resize functionality in disk utility doesn't work (as a side note, disk utility is able to successfully shrink a HFS+ partition on an iSCSI volume).

nightstrm wrote:

consumedsoul wrote: nightstrm wrote: helo227 wrote: Can you expand while the data on the LUN is being accessed? I have an iSCSI LUN connected to my file server and wanted to expand it. Do I have to stop the sharing in Windows and tell users not to access those network drives while it expands? I believe the ReadyNAS interface strongly recommends that you disconnect all initiators before starting the expansion. While the LUN expansion worked flawlessly, I did run into an issue where I couldn't get OSX to expand the HFS+ partition to match the new volume size. This is a separate issue that I worked around by reformatting the partition and copying data back from a backup. This isn't likely to be a problem with other file systems, and I'm still not entirely sure why I wasn't able to grow the HFS+ partition. Did you ever get the OS X to expand the partition successfully w/o having to reformat each time you expand? I'm backing up data to backblaze so I wouldn't want to restart the backups/seeding every time. :( Basically if I expand and I go to disk utility to drag the partition size down to max out the vol and hit apply, it just reverts back to the original size (w/o any error nor feedback). Unfortunately not. In searching around the Internet, I found a couple posts recommending iPartition (http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php), but I could never find anything definitive that it would work. Not sure why the partition resize functionality in disk utility doesn't work (as a side note, disk utility is able to successfully shrink a HFS+ partition on an iSCSI volume).

Yeah - very unfortunate. :(

nightstrm wrote:

consumedsoul wrote: nightstrm wrote: helo227 wrote: Can you expand while the data on the LUN is being accessed? I have an iSCSI LUN connected to my file server and wanted to expand it. Do I have to stop the sharing in Windows and tell users not to access those network drives while it expands? I believe the ReadyNAS interface strongly recommends that you disconnect all initiators before starting the expansion. While the LUN expansion worked flawlessly, I did run into an issue where I couldn't get OSX to expand the HFS+ partition to match the new volume size. This is a separate issue that I worked around by reformatting the partition and copying data back from a backup. This isn't likely to be a problem with other file systems, and I'm still not entirely sure why I wasn't able to grow the HFS+ partition. Did you ever get the OS X to expand the partition successfully w/o having to reformat each time you expand? I'm backing up data to backblaze so I wouldn't want to restart the backups/seeding every time. :( Basically if I expand and I go to disk utility to drag the partition size down to max out the vol and hit apply, it just reverts back to the original size (w/o any error nor feedback). Unfortunately not. In searching around the Internet, I found a couple posts recommending iPartition (http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php), but I could never find anything definitive that it would work. Not sure why the partition resize functionality in disk utility doesn't work (as a side note, disk utility is able to successfully shrink a HFS+ partition on an iSCSI volume).

yoh-dah/chirpah - any insights on why OS X isn't allowing ReadyNAS iSCSI volumes to be grown non-destructively?