Array expansion on 6i Controller

[Phoenix5]

I have a 560Gb external array; RAID 5; Basic Disk.

I have added 2 -300Gb drives, have successfully extended this thru ACU. After the expansion, the Logical Drive shows that the 2 new 300Gb has been added to the Array. However, it only shows that the Array has a total of 840Gb. I go into Disk Management, it shows that I have 270Gb of Unallocated space on the same disk drive.

My questions are:
1) How do I add the unallocated new space into the existing 560Gb partition w/o damaging any of the existing data. (this is a Win2K SP4 server and I am aware of Diskpart but never used it, but can use it if this is the route to go).

2) I added 2 -300Gb drives, how come it's only showing 270Gb unallocated space? Where's the other 300Gb?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Phoenix~

[Marek Nelec · Accepted solution]

1) yes, you should use DISKPART utility to extend windows volume.

2) how many drives (and what capacity) did you have in the array before expansion?

[Phoenix5]

Hi Marek,

Thanks for the prompt response. I will use DiskPart to extend the windows volume then.

The external array has 14 available disk or LUN; before the expansion, I had 5 existing drives of 146Gb in the array already. After the expansion, the array shows that the new 2 -300Gb were added but like I said in my original post, I'm only getting an additional 274Gb as unallocated. This is a RAID 5 volume, theortically, I should see an increase of almost 600Gb; or total volume of over 1TB.

Thanks again for your response.

[Mauro Rusignuolo]

Hi Phoenix5,
I read your post.
As you say, you have 5 HDs of 146 GB in raid 5 and the dimension of your array is 540 GB that is around 4x140 GB = 560 GB.
the fifth Hd is the "hot spare".
you have added 2 HD of 300 GB.
raid 5 need minimum 3 HDs: 2 HDs + hot spare.
if you want 600 GB more, instead of 300, you have to add one 300 GB more.

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take a look at theis link:

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/_common/br_host/_education/talk_about_raid.htm


bye
TJK

[Phoenix5]

Hi The Jackal,

I "assumed" the RAID 5 was already active and be adding the 2 additional 300Gb, the 600Gb would just be added to the exiting RAID 5 because there was already a hot spare? Essentially what you're saying is that if you're going to add more storage in a RAID 5 volume, you're going to loose 1 drive for hot spare everytime? Is this correct?

Thanks for your response and help!

[Mauro Rusignuolo]

Hi,

no, not "anytime", but anytime you add HDs of different size.
raid 5, assumes: minimmum 2 HD + hot spare "OF THE SAME SIZE".

bye

TJK

[Phoenix5]

Hi Jackal,

So if the new drives were the same as the existing 146Gb, I wouldn't have this problem? or the hot spare will still be in play no matter?

Thanks again.

[Marek Nelec]

Phoenix5, if you've added drives with higher capacity already installed HDDs than the Smart Array controller won't be able to use their full capacity, it will use only 146GB from 300GB.

[Marek Nelec]

Phoenix5, if you've added drives with higher capacity THAN already installed HDDs than the Smart Array controller won't be able to use their full capacity, it will use only 146GB from 300GB. Sorry for the typo.

[Phoenix5]

Hi Marek,

I guess I should have gone with a new Logical Volume then.

Thanks Jackal and Marek for your help!