: Add a Virtual Disk to Panorama on an ESXi Server
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Add a Virtual Disk to Panorama on an ESXi Server

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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.
  1. 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
      Power
      Power 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
      Power
      Power On
      . The virtual disk initializes for first-time use. The size of the new disk determines how long initialization takes.
  2. Configure each disk.
    The following example uses the sdc virtual disk.
    1. 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
    2. 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.
    3. 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
      .
  3. Make disks available for logging.
    1. Log in to the Panorama web interface.
    2. Select
      Panorama
      Managed Collectors
      and edit the Log Collector.
    3. Select
      Disks
      and Add each newly added disk.
    4. Click
      OK
      .
    5. Select
      Commit
      Commit to Panorama
      .
      For Panorama in an Active/Passive high availability (HA) configuration, wait for HA sync to complete before continuing.
    6. Select
      Commit
      Push to Devices
      and push the changes to the Collector Group the Log Collector belongs to.
  4. 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.
  5. Verify that the Panorama Log Storage capacity has been increased.
    1. Log in to the Panorama web interface.
    2. Select
      Panorama
      Collector 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.

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