Support for mixed disks
NetBackup Flex Scale Gen10 and Gen11 systems support disk replacements using different capacities. This enhancement simplifies field replacements and enables smoother hardware refresh operations.
NetBackup Flex Scale supports mixed disks in the following scenarios:
Mixed disk capacities are supported within a node and across the cluster.
Disk replacements can use different firmware versions.
You can replace a 14‑TB disk with a 16‑TB or 20‑TB disk in the current Flex Scale release.
To maintain cluster consistency, Flex Scale performs logical capacity normalization when disks of different sizes are used.
A failed disk can be replaced with a higher‑capacity disk using the operation in the GUI.
After the replacement completes:
The new disk appears in the GUI with its full physical capacity displayed.
The usable capacity of the disk is automatically aligned with the capacity used by the other disks in the node or cluster.
This behavior ensures consistent storage utilization and prevents imbalance across the system.
Strict disk model and vendor qualification checks have been relaxed. This change prevents unnecessary blocks during the following operations:
Adding a node to a cluster
Replacing a failed disk
Performing upgrade operations
As a result, supported disk replacements and expansions can proceed without requiring identical disk models.
Replacing an NVMe or SSD with a higher‑capacity disk is not supported.
This feature applies only to data disks; catalog disks are not supported.
Replacing a disk with one from a different vendor is not supported.
Any additional capacity on a higher‑capacity replacement disk remains unused and cannot be utilized by the cluster.