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Re: DL380 Raid 1 to Raid5

 
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Ben Knight
Occasional Advisor

DL380 Raid 1 to Raid5

Hi all. I currently have a DL380 with 2 146GB 15k rpm SCSI drives running Raid 1. I am running out of space however and want to add 3 more drives like the others and run Raid 5.

Is this possible without reinstalling the OS? Can anyone point me in the right direction as far as taking on this task if it is possible?

13 REPLIES 13
Joshua Scott
Honored Contributor

Re: DL380 Raid 1 to Raid5

Is this software or hardware RAID? the quick answer is that some hardware RAID controllers allow you to move from RAID1 to RAID5 without a reload, as well as some Software RAID solutions.

What kind of RAID solution is being used?
What are the chances...
Steven Clementi
Honored Contributor

Re: DL380 Raid 1 to Raid5

Ben:

Also, what OS are you running? Since this is a DL380, I can assume Windows, but there are other possibilities.


Assuming you are running Windows and you have a Smart Array Controller hosting the disk Array with a RAID1 Logical Drive, is all your space allocated to the "C:" drive?

Are you looking to increase your OS/Boot Partition or your Data Partition (if you have one)?


Steven
Steven Clementi
HP Master ASE, Storage, Servers, and Clustering
MCSE (NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3)
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Ben Knight
Occasional Advisor

Re: DL380 Raid 1 to Raid5

I am pretty sure it is a hardware RAID. I did not setup the server so I am not positive but I am reasonably sure.

I am running Windows Server 2003 on the DL380. I have 2 partitions, one for the OS and of course one for our data. I would like to extend both if possible, but if not, just the data partition for sure...

Thanks for the help!
Ben Knight
Steven Clementi
Honored Contributor

Re: DL380 Raid 1 to Raid5

Ben:

IF you have have 2 logical drives configured, 1 logical drive for your OS and 1 Logical drive for your Data, then it is relatively easy to increase the data space. The OS on the other hand is a bit more involved.

Logical Drives are NOT to be confused with Disk Partitions. If you have 1 Logical Drive with 2 Disk Partitions, then your task at hand is a bit harder. Logical drives are defined using the Array Configuration Utility, or the RAID manager of the particular card you may be using for hardware RAID. Most likely a Smart Array 6i Controller, which uses the ACU to configure. Disk Partitions are configured at the OS level, in Disk Management for Windows type OS's.

Can you tell us which you have? 2 Logical Drives? or 1 Logical Drive with 2 Partitions?


If you have 2 logical drives, expanding the data drive is easy and requires all the built in tools. ACU and Diskpart.exe. Basically, you just add the drives to the Server and use the ACU to Expand the existing array. You then extend the existing logical drives by the amount of space you want (what is freely available) and/or migrate it to RAID5 at that time. Once the Controller is finished, you use diskpart within Windows to extend the disk partition of your data drive. All this can be done while the server is online and servicing clients. Minimal interruption.

Diskpart will ONLY work on a partition where the logical drive does NOT contain an OS/Boot partition.


Click here for more details on diskpart.exe...

" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325590/en-us "

and here...

" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841650/en-us "

and here...

" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304736/en-us " (For clustered servers)


Steven
Steven Clementi
HP Master ASE, Storage, Servers, and Clustering
MCSE (NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3)
VCP (ESX2, Vi3, vSphere4, vSphere5, vSphere 6.x)
RHCE
NPP3 (Nutanix Platform Professional)
Steven Clementi
Honored Contributor

Re: DL380 Raid 1 to Raid5

For the logical drive with the OS on it, or the case where you have 1 logical drive with 2 partitions (1 OS/Boot and 1 data), you have to use a different third party utility to chnage the partition info. Back in the day, Partition Magic was the tool I used, but I believe the latest versions do not work with the Server Editions of the Windows Operating System. You have to find an alternative. There are several. I have not used any so I can not recommend any.



Steven
Steven Clementi
HP Master ASE, Storage, Servers, and Clustering
MCSE (NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3)
VCP (ESX2, Vi3, vSphere4, vSphere5, vSphere 6.x)
RHCE
NPP3 (Nutanix Platform Professional)
Ben Knight
Occasional Advisor

Re: DL380 Raid 1 to Raid5

I have 1 logical drive split into 2 partitions so it looks like I'm going to have the harder of the two options...

Thanks again!
Ben Knight
Steven Clementi
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: DL380 Raid 1 to Raid5

Your other options would be to...

1. Add the drives and create a new logical drive for yoru data. Move the data over to the new logical drive and then you will hve free space on the same logical drive to extend your OS/Boot partition using some other 3rd party software.

2. Ghost/Image your OS and backup your data, recreate the array with 2 logical drives and restore the image and data.


If you look and find a product for manupulating the partitions, please let us know what you use. Of the products I have looked at so far, none support Windows Server editions.



Steven
Steven Clementi
HP Master ASE, Storage, Servers, and Clustering
MCSE (NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3)
VCP (ESX2, Vi3, vSphere4, vSphere5, vSphere 6.x)
RHCE
NPP3 (Nutanix Platform Professional)
Ben Knight
Occasional Advisor

Re: DL380 Raid 1 to Raid5

Thanks Steven for all the info. It has really been a help so far.

Let me ask one last question if I may. If I go with option #1 of adding the drives, creating a new logical drive, and moving all my data over, I would in essence be leaving my current logical drive alone running Raid 1, right? So then I could setup raid 1 on the new drives or if I wanted to go with 3 or more drives, I could do raid 5.

So again, I would have 2 drives doing raid 1 and the 3+ drives doing raid 5?

Thanks!
Ben
Steven Clementi
Honored Contributor

Re: DL380 Raid 1 to Raid5

Yes. You can leave the 2 drives alone, add the 3 nw drives and create a second array. In that array, you can create RAID0, 1 or 5 logical drives.

These would be totally separate from the 2 other drives.


My suggestion would then be to get a fourth drive to allocate as a global hot spare drive for BOTH arrays, just for extra protection.


You can still move the data from the second partition to the new logical drive and try an manipulate the "C:" drive with other software. Just make sure you have a good backup.



Steven
Steven Clementi
HP Master ASE, Storage, Servers, and Clustering
MCSE (NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3)
VCP (ESX2, Vi3, vSphere4, vSphere5, vSphere 6.x)
RHCE
NPP3 (Nutanix Platform Professional)