Add disk to RAID 5 on ML350

[YannickG]

is it normal that it takes a very long time expand the array ?

it's been like almost 4 hours and it's still not done.

thanks

[Chris Saindon]

Hello,

The array can take a VERY long time depending on the size and speed of the drives. A rough estimate is 15mins per GB. I've seen arrays take 16 hours to expand.

It really depends on the array and if the server is in production at the time can slow it down as well.

You can also check in the Array Config Util. On the left column, select the Array controller, in the center column, select the controller and on the right column, select controller config. I would suggest setting the rebuild and expand speeds at medium. This setting at low can take extremely long.

You can also see the percentage of the rebuild by the same means. On the left column, select the Array controller, in the center column, select the controller and on the right column, select more info, and you'll see a rebuilt percentage.

Chris

[Steven Clementi]

Yes, the expand can take a long time. If you can set the priority to high for a short while, that might help out.

Remember, the array controller needs to move all your data around and "level" it on ALL the drives. "Read here, write there, read here, write there, read there, write here..." Changing parity info (for RAID5 logical drives) and double writes (for RAID1 logical drives).

You can also use an older ACU gui and see a graghical representation of how the progress is going.


Steven

[YannickG]

Great, seeing a percentage helps a lot.

That server is in production and my speed settings were on "low". I change the speed to medium as suggested and I'll probably leave it work over night.

Thanks!

[Andrew_271]

I expanded a Raid-5 1.90 Terabyte volume by adding 2 additional 300 GB drives. I used one of the drives to make the array raid6 (ADG). I assumed that the other drive would bring the size of the volume to 2.2TB. The most it allowed me to do was 1.99TB. Is there a size limitation that may be preventing me to add more space?


I have a DL380 with a Smart Array 6400 Controller, running Windows 2003 Storage Server.

[KMullins]

Hi Andrew,

Indeed there is a limitation on the max size for a single logical drive is 2TB.


Logical Drives Up to 32 logical drives
Up to 2 TB per Logical Drive

RAID Support RAID ADG (Advanced Data Guarding)
RAID 5 (Distributed Data Guarding)
RAID 1+0 (Striping & Mirroring)
RAID 0 (Striping)

Link
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11587_div/11587_div.HTML#Technical%20Specifications