topic Smart Array P410i Question in BladeSystem - General

Smart Array P410i Question

Ian Kaney — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:55:14 GMT

Hi there, hopefully somebody can help me with this question.

I've got the HP BL460C G6 with integrated HP Smart Array P410i of which I have two drives running in RAID 1+0.

Originally this device had 2x146GB drives running, however we started to run out of space so it was decided to purchase 2x300GB drives to replace them with.

Following documentation I removed one of the 146GB drives and replaced with a 300GB unit and waited for the array to rebuild. I then proceeded to remove the final 146GB and replace with the final 300GB unit. The array has now rebuilt successfully however the logical drive is still at it's original size.

I'm aware I need to expand or extend this although I'm confused as to which! I'm also aware that extension/expansion options won't appear unless I have a battery for the cache (BBWC) from what I've read. After reading more it appears I'll need an advanced license key to perform "advanced capacity expansion", but I'm not entirely sure if what I'm trying to do falls into this category...

So the question is:
Once I have installed the BBWC onto the controller, will I be able to extend/expand the logical drive to fill the 300GB of space which will allow me to fiddle with the partitions in the OS and let me use the extra space I have? Or will I need the advanced license key as well to accomplish this?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Re: Smart Array P410i Question

Igor Karasik — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:24:06 GMT

Hi,

>>I'll need an advanced license key to perform "advanced capacity expansion",

AFAIK, you don't need it

You really need BBWC in order to do online extend/expand. I think (but not sure ! because we never buy servers without BBWC) you can do OFFLINE extend/expand without BBWC - you can boot from SmartStart and run ACU.

Regarding to extend patition on OS level - which OS you have ?
If it is Windows 2003 - you need to boot from Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) and do diskpart, because you cannot extend system volume with diskpart while windows running. In windows 2008 you can try to do system volume extend online as well.

Regards, Igor

Re: Smart Array P410i Question

Clarete Riana — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:28:58 GMT

>>>I'm aware I need to expand or extend this although I'm confused as to which!

You need to do an extend to increase the size and not expand in this case, as the old drives are replaced by the new ones.

Re: Smart Array P410i Question

gregersenj — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:37:19 GMT

You're right.

You expand the array(s), when you want to add more disks to the Array(s).

You extend the logical drives, when you have the empty space and want to make your drive bigger.

And the you have to extend the OS partion, as Igor describe.

BR
/jag

Re: Smart Array P410i Question

Ian Kaney — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:29:08 GMT

Thank you for all your replies, it's appreciated.

I tried booting with Smartstart and attempted an offline array extension, however the option doesn't even appear no matter what I tried!

I've ordered the battery upgrade, fingers crossed it'll get here and everything will be sorted.

Thanks again.

Re: Smart Array P410i Question

Dan Robinson_4 — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 04:11:24 GMT

If you have access to Ghost, you can boot the machine from a Ghost/BartPE Boot CD/ISO, grab an image of the current drive contents (storing them on a USB drive or network location)

Then go into the simple F8 screen and re-create the array with the new 300GB drives so the array sees all the space.

then boot back to the Ghost/BartPE disc and restore the image but change the size on the destination to fill the drive.

I have personally done this with Windows 200x machines several times and its alot easier than messing with array expansion, WBC and all that. It takes a while though so expect your machine to be down for a few hours while you do it.

If you dont have BartPE/Ghost, try asking your desktop team. They have to re-image so many machines compared to a server guy they probably have it over there already.