topic Re: Array expansion in Disk Enclosures

Array expansion

Greg_274 — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 09:28:46 GMT

I plan on adding two more (same size) drives to a proliant ml350 with:
Windows 2003 SBS.
Two 36.4 GB Ultra3 scsi, setup with raid 1.
A Smart array 532 controller.
And 64-bit/66-MHz Dual Channel Wide Ultra3 SCSI Adapter.
I've been here http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/16580.html
to download the ACU and downloaded a hp array configuration utility guide.

The drives are partitioned with a C: and E: and I want to add the two drives to the array and use the space to increase the size of C: and E:

Can I do all this using ACU?

Re: Array expansion

Steven Clementi — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 10:11:26 GMT

Greg:

You will need ACU to perform the first part of the expansion, but will need some third party utility to increase the size of your System Partition.

Are your C: and E: partitions on 1 Logical Drive? or 2 seperate logical drives? You can check with ACU. Just run ACU and the first screen you see should show 1 or 2 logical drives.

If you have 1 logical drive, My best suggestion is that you create a second logical drive in the amount of space that you want, and migrate the data on E: to this new logical drive. Afterwards, you can swap the drive letters if needed.

This gives you better/more options with your System partition. You will still need some 3rd party software to expand though.

If you have 2 logical drives already, then after you expand your array with the 2 new drives AND extend your logical drives, you will need to have some 3rd party software still to extend your c: drive, BUT you would be able to use diskpart.exe (A free Microsoft utility) to extend your e: drive.

Diskpart info...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;325590

Either way, you need some 3rd party utility like "Partition Magic", which I think does not work on Windows Server 2003, or similar. I know there are some other utilities, not sure of the names.

Steven

Re: Array expansion

Ivan Ferreira — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 10:18:58 GMT

You created a new raid with the two disks, and this new drive has two partitions.

Using the windows disk manager, you can extend a volume, if the disks are dynamic.

BUT.

The volume extension is not available for the C partition. So, the solution posted above may be suitable for you.

Re: Array expansion

Greg_274 — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 11:36:52 GMT

Thank you all.
Array A contains 1 logical Drive.
Drive C: has about 1 GB of free space and
Drive E: is under 500 MG. user files are on Drive E. I've read up on capacity expansion and volume extension and want to ask would Standard configration or Configuration wizard be best. I've used partition magic before and will look to see if there is a version that works on SBS server 2003.

Creating a second logical drive and migrating the data is what I will plan to do. I have not done this before and any help with using ACU you can offer is appreciated.

Re: Array expansion

Steven Clementi — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 12:13:13 GMT

ACU is easy to work with. it sounds like you may have the Software GUI, not the web based GUI.

Either way, Standard Configuration would probably be the way to do since i believe the Wizard does not give the option to expand. Maybe you can post a screenshot of what it looks like when you run it so we know for sure?

Basically, you would add the drives into the server and your Smart Array should automatically "see" them. Then in ACU, you would click you array and click "expand array", select the 2 new drives and away it goes. Once complete, it could take a while to complete especially if the existing drives are full, you can then click your logical drive and expand it OR create a new logical drive out of the newly available space.

Should be easy as pie from that point. Format new drive, copy data, change drive letter, etc...

Then for c:, find a good partitioning program.

Steven

Re: Array expansion

Steven Clementi — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 12:19:45 GMT

You also probably want to make sure you have the latest driver and firmware...

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/storage/us/locate/69_5145.html

Older ACU Software...

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/14185.html

Newer ACU software...

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/23025.html

Steven