topic Re: Expand RAID 5 Array in Windows 2000 OK? in Disk Enclosures

Expand RAID 5 Array in Windows 2000 OK?

Eric Musum — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 09:39:18 GMT

Hi. I have a ML370 with a RAID 5 array, 5312 controller. When purchased, we researched to ensure we could expand the array as needed. The time has come, and I've placed another drive in the server. Using the array configuration utility 2.90A, it sees the drive, but when I get to the point of telling it to expand the current logical drive, I get a warning box saying: "Extension is not currently supported on Windows 2000. If any logical part of this drive uses Windows 2000, please do not attempt or data-loss may occur."

Question 1: Is this true, or am I relatively safe to expand the logical drive?

Question 2: If #1 is not safe, would it be safe to do if the server is upgraded to Windows Server 2003?

Thanks.

Re: Expand RAID 5 Array in Windows 2000 OK?

Steven Clementi — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 12:12:52 GMT

Eric:

The warning you are seeing applys to Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 3 or earlier. If you are running Service Pack 4, then you are ok to extend the logical drive.

If you upgrade your ACU to the latest web based version, 7.4 (i think), then you will see the extended warning telling you this.

I posted a reply message a while back with the screenshots of said warning messages, but I will have to sift through my old replys to find it. If/when I do, I will provide the link.

This then, I am fairly sure it is safe, unless of course your at sp3 or earlier.

After expanding the logical drive, you will need to extend the partition within Windows. Without knowing too much about your configuration, I can not suggest a course of action. To give you some ideas...

If you have a separate logical drive for your OS and you want to extend a "data" partition, you can use diskpart... a free Microsoft Utility for partitioning. Do not confuse partition and logical drive. A logical drive is what Disk Manager sees as the raw device. A partition is a section, or the whole drive, carved up for the OS to use. Generally, if your C: partition (or OS/Boot partition) is on the SAME logical drive as your D: (or data partition), then there are some restrictions when using diskpart. Please review this post...

" http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=996971 "

...specifically, my second post in the thread for more links to diskpart info.

Steven

Re: Expand RAID 5 Array in Windows 2000 OK?

Eric Musum — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 13:59:24 GMT

Thanks for the reply. I think we'll be OK. It is a single array, with separate partitions for the system and data. Thanks for the link, as I hadn't had that one.

-Eric