ML370 Raid5 expansion

[Bill Strahan]

Is it possible to expand the currently running Raid5?

ML370 G2
One Raid5 (4 x 18.2 gb 15k Ultra3 SCSI; 1 spare)
Smart Array 5300 Controller
ACU 7.50

I added in a fifth physical drive and ACU recognizes it as a third logical drive.

Windows Disk Management shows it as unallocated space.

It is possible to add the fifth drive to the existing raid on the first logical drive so to increase that volume?

[Steven Clementi · Accepted solution]

Bill:

From the sounds of it, the new drive had some existing configuration on it perhaps. If it were a new drive, it shold just show in ACU as an available drive to do something with.

If you are confident that the drive does not contain any needed data, you should be able to delet the array that contains this single drive and re-allocate it to your existing array of 4 disks. Once you add the 5th drive to the old array, the space will become available for use either by extending existing logical drives, or by creating new logical drives.

Are you looking to extend an OS partition? How is your OS laid out currently?

Also, what OS are you running?


Steven

[Steven Clementi]

Nevermind about the last OS question. I obviously need to fully read the situation before I post a message.


;o)

[Bill Strahan]

Steven: You are saying that the 5th drive possibly had some pre-existing data on it? And that is why the ACU didn't recognize it as an available drive?

Yes, it is a drive that was in inventory and is now needed to extend the data partition (not OS to answer your question).

However a new development has arisen. Now I remember why the drive was in inventory. It is a bad drive. However, the ACU first recongized as a valid drive. Now the drive itself is "orange" lighted and the ACU says it is a bad drive.

So the original question of this thread is now moot and I need to get the defective drive out of the ACU Controller settings.

The new question is can I plug in (hot swap) a new drive in its place even though the ACU has the old drive in its grasp? The server's native ACU (Compaq Array Utility) says that removing the drive cannot be done until the physical problem with the drive is fixed.

So will physically removing and plugging in a new drive mess up the array or ACU Controller's settings?

[Bill Strahan]

One more addition to the above post.

The spare drive is now kicked into service since the ACU recognizes the 5th drive as a bad drive.

[Steven Clementi]

Bill:

If the drive has actually come up as a separate array, then when you remove it... that array will disappear since you technically removed the last drive with that configuration.

Since the drive is a separate array, removing it should not effect the rest of the configuration nor the other array.

If you wanted to be safe, do a quick backup before removing it, or copy the data somewhere if you can.

If the drive is part of the original 4 drive array (making it a 5 drive array), then removing the drive would put you into a degraded situation which, potentially... if you lost another disk... could be catastrophic to your data.

You should be able to hot swap the drive with relatively no issues.


Steven