Enlarge mirror set

[Martijn Krijger_1]

Hi,

We have a HP Proliant DL380 with a 6402 disk array controller.
I used 2 hotplug 18.2 Gb disks to create a mirror (with the Array configurator utility, not in the OS).
I created two partitions in W2k 2 times 9Gb.
Stupid enough, the second disk is to small for us.
My question is:
Can i buy 2 new larger disks, insert one into the server, wait for repairation of the mirror. Replace the second disk and wait again.
Or do i have bad luck and do i reinstall the server (or restore).

Regards and thanks for reply.

[Martin Breidenbach · Accepted solution]

I've done that some weeks ago (in a configuration that used basic disks).

After the remirror of the 2nd drive is finished you still have to tell it to use the free space. You can expand the existing logical drive or create a new logical drive.

The easiest way is to create a new logical drive and add it to your D: drive.

You also can expand the array and use tools like Microsoft DISCPART or 3rd party tools like partition magic to extend a basic disk.

Did you use basic or dynamic disk ?

If you use diskpart to extend the drive then run it from safe mode.

[Martijn Krijger_1]

We use basic disks, but it's no problem to remove the second partition and create a larger one.
The problem was the first disk, with boot partition + OS on it.

[Martin Breidenbach]

So you want to increase the C: drive ? AFAIK discpart can't do that.

I've created a Windows PE bootable CD (see nu2.nu web site) with Partition Magic plugin installed to modify the partition sizes. It did mix up drive letters (D/E/F) but otherwise it worked.

BTW:
After remirror of the 2nd drive is finished you'll have to create an additional logical drive or expand the existing one. When I did this some weeks ago we upgraded two systems. On one system the expansion needed only seconds to finish, on the other several hours. Both servers had current firmware but one had a Smart 5i and one a Smart 531.

[Martijn Krijger_1]

The C-drive remains the same size.
It's ok now.