Disk Swapping.... for the insane

[Andy White_1]

We have recently upgraded/replaced a mirrored pair of 18.2GB disks with 72.8 disks on a DL360 G2 by hot-swapping and rebuilding each in turn with the system up. We have since tried to re-size the current array using the Compaq Array Configuration Utility but it just says that resizing is not supported on Windows 2000. DOH! I can only create a new array using the space on the 18.2GB disks but I don't want to do that - I want to expand the existing array. I've looked at Partition Magic and Volumemanger 2.0 from Powerquest but these don't see the space until I create another array (then it sees it as another disk!) - I'm thinking of going back to the original disks and using Symantec Ghost to take an image, swap the disks and put the image back onto the 72.8GB disks (Ghost will automatically re-size the volumes to the space available - I've done that bit before...)

My question to the forum is - if I pull out a 72.8GB disk and replace it with the old 18.2GB disk will this work???

Has anybody attempted such a ridiculous thing before and can give me any pointers before I try????

Cheers!

[e4services]

Well, Windows won't allow you to resize a partition or logical drive without destroying the data. This is a given with Microsoft. In any case, you need to put your data somewhere else long enought to pull those drives and put in larger ones. When you hot swap add a new drive of larger total size, the RAID controller can only deal with it in the way you describe, rebuilding an 18GB drive to match the ols drive and leaving the rest of the space unusable unti the other is replace, at that point it is just free space.
I am surprised, though, about VolumnManager. If you have this, PowerQuest markets that it can do this. Have you asked Powerquest? We do not have a lot of experience with ServerMagic but I know that with PartitionMagic the free space would show up in the Disk Manager, but again this could come back to WIndows 2000. I do have this Tech note from Powerquest that might help:
http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id2036.cfm
I am can of unclear about why you would want or need to return to the 18GB set, but you should be able to just re-install the set, or one for that matter. I would re-install 2000 on the new drives. Put it in the same Service pack / update condition and then copy everything from the old disk to the new, writing over everything. We have done this before and it worked famously.

[Randy Weis · Accepted solution]

You need to use DISKPART, which is the Microsoft utility that Compaq (oops, HP) recommends when resizing basic disks. It works like a champ ans is easy. I have used this in an EVA SAN, and MSA SAN, and with DAS (internal and external). As always, backup your data first! See the link below to Q325590.


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;325590

If this helps, please mark this thread as answered. It will be my first! I want a little hat!

[Andy White_1]

Hello E4Services and Randy,
Thanks for you replies regarding my disk swapping problem. Appologies for not replaying sooner but you know how it is when you have a live system, downtime is rare! I looked on the Powerquest website as advised but could not find anything which really allowed me to do what I wanted. I also tried the diskpart utility but this said I only had a 18.2GB disk in there and that there was no free space to expand into (even thought there were two 72.8GB disks in there!). I eventually decided to use Symantec Ghost 7.5 to take an image of the system (as a backup). I then hot swapped the 72.8GB disks for the 18.2GB disks - this worked! - probably because the system thought the 72.8GB disks were only 18.2GB disks anyway. I then took another Ghost image of the now 18.2GB disks for migration purposes. I then Smart-Started the two 72.8Gb disks and built a mirrored pair using the array config utility. Once that was setup I Ghosted the migration image from the 18.2GB disks back onto the 72.8GB disk allowing Ghost to automatically re-size the partitions itself (for some reason when I tried to set my own sizes for the partitions it fell over everytime it moved onto the second partition..) The upshot of all this is that I now have 36GB of disk on my data partition, and I suppose I can always use Powerquests Volume Manager to resize the 16GB system and 16GB swap partitions if I need more. A big thanks to you both for your input and I will bear the dispart utility in mind in the future as it sounds very handy.

Cheers,
Andy
;-)

[Iain Hamilton_4]

To confuse even further can this be done on a cluster with an RA4100 10x18gig disk array
split into 5/3/2
I want to replace these with 72gig drives

[Benjamin W. Hill]

Regarding Diskpart, it doesn't support expanding a system partition, so you can't do this. I had the same situation, and have not been able to come up with a way to expand the system partion on a RAID logical drive, even though there is plenty of space available.
I've tried it with both leaving the space unformatted(unallocated space at end of drive) and by creating another partition(extended) and no go.
I have ghosted my original drive, and will try to overwrite the new OS after re-install.

[Andy White_1]

Regarding Iain's question, I have only ever Ghosted hard RAID 0+1 (mirrored pairs) so wouldn't like to say, I doubt it will work on soft RAID at all. Ghost recognises logical volumes rather than individual drives with different levels of RAID. If you do have a go the I'd advise a full system backup first (obvious I know!). My only concerns would be that the array will need to be set up first (ok easy) but you have to let Ghost re-size the partitions itself when you bring the image back otherwise it seems to fail - this may be what messes it up in your situation.

I'd be interested to know how you do if you do give it a go... and here's me thinking that I was the only insane one out here!

- Good Luck!

[Ron Paille]

Correct me if I am wrong but this is a Compaq issue, not a MS Windows issue,right? Or put another way, does Windows Disk Management see the unallocated free space on the dynamic disk mirror?

If Disk Manager sees the free space, you can extend the disk, see MSKB #323442. Windows 2000 supports increasing the size of a simple or spanned volume - without the need for diskpart, diskpart is only needed for basic disks.

If Disk Manager does NOT see the free space than this is a Compaq issue, right?

[Colin_29]

This is an old chestnut. I was given this "cheat" by an instructor on a Proliant Server course years ago as a way of increasing the size of a RAID5 array. And promptly told by him that it was not a Compaq supported solution - so don't come crying when it all goes pear shaped.

The problem is that on completion of the array expansion, it is presented to the operating system as another logical drive (just like adding another hard drive in a simple non raid system).

In the operating system (back in the days I picked this up it was NT4) you are limited to options such as creating a volume set.

The official solution is to backup, reconfigure and then restore. (best of luck!!)

The way I have achieved it in the past is using Ghost.