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Panorama Administrator's Guide

Add a Virtual Disk to Panorama on an ESXi Server

Table of Contents

Add a Virtual Disk to Panorama on an ESXi Server

To expand log storage capacity on the Panorama virtual appliance, you can add virtual logging disks. If the appliance is in Panorama mode, you can add 1 to 12 virtual logging disks of 2TB each or 1 24TB logging disk, for a maximum total of 24TB. If the appliance is in Legacy mode, you can add one virtual logging disk of up to 8TB on ESXi 5.5 and later versions or one disk of up to 2TB on earlier ESXi versions. Additionally, it is recommended to add logging disks with the same disk provisioning format to avoid any unexpected performance that may arise from having multiple disk with different provisioning formats.

If Panorama loses connectivity to the new virtual disk, Panorama might lose logs during the failure interval.

To allow for redundancy, use the virtual disk in a RAID configuration. RAID10 provides the best write performance for applications with high logging characteristics.

If necessary, you can Replace the Virtual Disk on an ESXi Server.

Add additional disks to Panorama

In all modes, the first logging disk on the Panorama VM must be at least 2TB in order to add additional disks. If the first logging disk is smaller than 2TB, you will be unable to add additional disk space.
1. Access the VMware vSphere Client and select Virtual Machines.
2. Right-click the Panorama virtual appliance and select PowerPower off.
3. Right-click the Panorama virtual appliance and select Edit Settings.
4. Click Add in the Hardware tab to launch the Add Hardware wizard.
5. Select Hard Disk as the hardware type and click Next.
6. Create a new virtual disk and click Next.
7. Set the Disk Size. If the Panorama virtual appliance is in Panorama mode, set the size to at least 2TB. If the appliance is in Legacy mode, you can set the size to as much as 8TB.
  
  In Panorama mode, you can add disk sizes larger than 2TB and Panorama will automatically create as many 2TB partitions as possible. For example, if disk sdc was 24TB, it will create 12 2TB partitions. These disks will be named sdc1-12.
8. Select the Disk Provisioning format and click Next.
9. Specify a datastore or datastore structure, Browse to a datastore with enough space for the specified Disk Size, click OK, and click Next.
10. Select a SCSI Virtual Device Node (you can use the default selection) and click Next.
  
  The selected node must be in SCSI format; Panorama will fail to boot if you select another format.
11. Verify that the settings are correct and then click Finish and OK.
  The new disk appears in the list of devices for the virtual appliance.
12. Repeat Step 4 through Step 11 to add additional disks to the Panorama virtual appliance if necessary.
13. Right click the Panorama virtual appliance and select PowerPower On. The virtual disk initializes for first-time use. The size of the new disk determines how long initialization takes.
Configure each disk.
The following example uses the sdc virtual disk.
1. Log in to the Panorama CLI.
2. Enter the following command to view the disks on the Panorama virtual appliance:
  show system disk details
  The user will see the following response:
```
	Name
: sdb 
	State : Present 
	Size : 2048000 MB 
	Status : Available 
	Reason : Admin enabled 
	Name : sdc 
	State : Present 
	Size : 2048000 MB 
	Status : Available 
	Reason : Admin disabled
```
3. Enter the following command and confirm the request when prompted for all disks with the Reason : Admin disabled response:
  request system disk add sdc
  
  The request system disk add command is not available on a Panorama management server in Management Only mode because logging is not supported in this mode. If you do not see the command, Set up a Panorama Virtual Appliance in Panorama Mode to enable the logging disks. Once in Panorama mode, Log in to the Panorama CLI and continue to Step 4 to verify the disk addition.
4. Enter the show system disk details command to verify the status of the disk addition. Continue to Step 3 when all newly added disk responses display Reason : Admin enabled.
Make disks available for logging.
1. Log in to the Panorama web interface.
2. Select PanoramaManaged Collectors and edit the Log Collector.
3. Select Disks and Add each newly added disk.
4. Click OK.
5. Select CommitCommit to Panorama.
  
  For Panorama in an Active/Passive high availability (HA) configuration, wait for HA sync to complete before continuing.
6. Select CommitPush to Devices and push the changes to the Collector Group the Log Collector belongs to.
Configure Panorama to receive logs.
This step is intended for new Panorama deployments in Panorama mode. If you are adding logging disks to an existing Panorama virtual appliance, continue to Step 5.
Verify that the Panorama Log Storage capacity has been increased.
1. Log in to the Panorama web interface.
2. Select PanoramaCollector Groups and select the Collector Group that the Panorama virtual appliance belongs to.
3. Verify that the Log Storage capacity accurately displays the disk capacity.

Preserve Existing Logs When Adding Storage on Panorama Virtual Appliance in Legacy Mode

Add a Virtual Disk to Panorama on vCloud Air