MSA1500cs / on;ine Logical dive extension under W2K3SP1?

[Chris V.]

Hello,

I have to extend a logical drive and I'm wondering if it's doable safely online.

The picture:
MSA1500CS / full SCSI
A Raid 1 - 72Gb disks (hosting Data files for an Exchange cluster) will be extended to RAID5 - 72Gb Disks.
So far, I added the 3rd and convert (online) the RAID1 to RAID5. No problem at all.

Now the big part :)
Can I safely extend the LUN from it 69Gb to the whole RAID5 array capacity online ?

Doc refers to Online extension not supported by all OS, but could not find clear statement about W2K3 SP1/Cluster supporting this.

Other hardware ref:
- Server DL380G4
- HBA CF2214

Thanks,
Chris

[raadek]

Chris,

Without a cluster you just simply use diskpart command & you're done without any disruptiuon (assuming your logical drive is not the one you boot your server from).

In a clustered environment the best thing to do is to follow this guide:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304736&sd=tech

NB the small print within this article says:
"Take the entire group that the physical disk resource is located in OFFLINE", i.e. you have to STOP THE CLUSTER while expanding the capacity.

Rgds.

[Chris V.]

I was hoping it might work online anyway ;)

But, something is not clear to me yet (while I did test month ago, not sure anymore), if I extend the LUN on the MSA to extend up to the max array capacity, what will Windows see ?

Diskpart doc mention that Windows has to see free space besides the partition to extend. Will it ever the case if the extesion is done MSA level ?

Thanks,

Chris

[raadek · Accepted solution]

Sure - if you extend your LUN, which already has been presented to your Windows host, on a storage box level, that host will see it as bigger immediately showing some unallocated space.

Rgds

[Chris V.]

Ok.

I'll then Bring My Exchange Server down :)
I'll do the process "Online", as it appears to be possible.

Hope it will not take too long ;)

Thanks,
Chris

[Chris V.]

Just finished.
Worked like a charm !

Thanks,
Chris