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Go to SolutionAdd disks without affecting production
Hello everyone!
I have an ME5024 with a single disk group assigned to Pool A; this disk group is a RAID 6 consisting of 10 SSDs and contains all my production virtual machines.
I now need to add more storage, and, most importantly, I must ensure that production environment is not affected. Could you advise me on the correct way to do this? I plan to add 2 SSDs in a RAID 1 configuration and use them as a datastore for my VMware hosts.
Thanks!
Ariel
DELL-Sam L
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Posted October 16th, 2026 15:42
Hello Adorssi,
Adding Drives — Physical Installation
Step-by-Step
1. **Identify empty bays** — Bays are numbered 0–23 (left to right, top to bottom)
2. **Unpack drives** — Handle with ESD precautions
3. **Remove blank drive carrier** from the target bay
4. **Align the drive** with the bay guide rails
5. **Slide the drive in** firmly until the latch clicks
6. **Verify LED status:**
| LED State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **Solid Green** | Drive detected and healthy |
| **Blinking Green** | Drive activity |
| **Amber** | Fault or not recognized |
| **Off** | Not detected — reseat or check |
Drives are **hot-swappable** — no downtime required for physical installation.
Adding Drives
Create a New Pool/Disk Group
Via GUI
1. Navigate to Pools → Create Pool
2. Select the new drives
3. Choose RAID level
4. Configure pool settings
5. Create volumes as needed
Via CLI
Create a new disk group with specific RAID level
add disk-group type linear disks 0.12,0.13,0.14,0.15 raid raid5 pool <pool_name>
# For ADAPT (distributed RAID)
add disk-group type adapt disks 0.12-0.23 pool <pool_name>