Smart Array 4200

[ed jenkins]

I have a smart array 4200 attatched to a Compaq proliant 3000. We have 9, 18 gig drives and need to change them all out to 36 gig drives. Running nt4 sp5. Anyone ever done this and what is the best practice?

[Janine Bertolo]

Hi Ed;

You can take one of two options:

1) delete the array, create a new one on the new drive set, reinstall OS if required and restore data from backup

2) remove one hard drive at a time and replace it with a larger one, letting the array rebuild each time (we recommend downing the server before replacing each drive as they have not failed) After nine passes, you can claim the free space on the drive set by adding a second logical drive in the Array Configuration Utility.

Each method has its advantages. The first is faster if you want to go through the trouble of reinstalling and restoring from backup. Restriping will take a minimum of 20min/GB of data on the array each time you replace a drive.

The second method allows you to keep the server in production while the array restripes information to the drive. Keep in mind that if a second drive were to fail in the array during this process, you'd lose the whole set.

Once the logical drive is created, use NT4.0 disk administrator to partition the free space and make it useable.

Hope that helps,

Janine