logical drive expansion ( capacity ) ?

[Ayman Altounji]

Here are a couple of preliminary thoughts about SHRWSQL2 RAID Array expansion. Let me know what you think.

1. All of the database data are currently on F: drive, which consists physically of 10 18-GB drives in a single Raid 5 array.
Ideally, we like to have a ?Logical Drive Capacity Extension?. It adds new capacity to existing F: logical drive so that
we don?t have to make any configuration change to SQL server and our backend robots. It may require a reboot
because most operating system don?t support dynamic drive size.
My concern about this configuration is that new drives we have are 36-GB and is it possible to construct a logical drive
with mixed-capacity drives without significant capacity trade off? I don?t know what the smart array controller
is capable of.

2. If we are not able to do a ?Logical Drive Capacity Extension?, we like to have a ?Online Capacity Expansion?.
It adds new physical drive to an array without disturbing the existing data and shutting down operating system.
The result will be a new logical drive(RAID 5). We need to make a few minus configuration change to SQL server
and robots after the expansion is done.

Thanks.