Adding a drive to MSA 500

[Mike_429]

We have a MSA 500 raid 5 with 5 146GB drives, the fithe being the hot spare. We are looking to add a 6th drive to the existing array to add more space. From what HP support told me and from reading on these the boards, the procedure is as follows:

Add new drive
Expand drive, setting the prioity first to high
Extend drive

My question is should I use the HP ACU to extend the drive or do it in windows, I have read some mixed answers. Also has anyone had any data loss doinf this, it is a production server and I do not want to lose any data.

[KarloChacon]

hi

check this post same question

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1164534

there is PDF to do the procedure (expand and extend)
take care about priority level high can affect user using the data and also high is in the case you need it very fast without any accessing HDDs

regards

[James ~ Happy Dude]

Hello Mike;

That is correct:

Add Drive > Expand Array > Extend the Logical Drive !!

Yes this can be done in Array Configuration Utility(recommended)

I don't think there would be any data loss in this procedure. But, as always have a Backup ready !!!

Regards,
James.

[KarloChacon]

hi

PDF is here, page 4

http://urlao.com/onlineexpan

regards

[KarloChacon]

no way I check the link not working

I attached the file

it's the same procedure for all contollers

regards

[Mike_429]

One more question, when it ask for the new size that the logical drive will be extended to, do I just add the new space to the current size and enter that number exactly?

[KarloChacon]

hi

well that is ADU 7.2

for recents ACU versions leave it by default (I mean usually they take all the space if not write down the one that is showed as max)

I recommend you use the latest one at least 7.8 or 7.85

regards

[KarloChacon]

hi

tell us anything else

and don't forget assign some points if the info was helpful

regards

[Mike_429]

I let the expansion run over night on high, and it just finshed this morning a little while ago. I just began to extend the drive. It didn't show the correct size, so I put in the max size as suggested. Right now it is at 25%, but when I click on the more inforamtion and look under status it says expanding. Is this normal even though it is actually extending? I also have it set to high right now, do you think it will take as long as the expansion took? I'll assign points to everyone once the process is complete. I appreciate everyones help so far!

[KarloChacon]

hi

don't worry about the name process it is OK the most importance is the %.

yes it also takes almost the same time both process

regards