Proliant 5000

[Elise Purdie_1]

I have an old Compaq Proliant 5000 Server which is running out of diskspace. I have found some old spare disks in a cupboard which used to belong to another long decommissioned server.

The disks are the correct replacements for this server. These disks will not be blank as they were used before.

I would really like to add these disks to my existing server to expand the capacity. I am reluctant just to stick them in the server incase I mess things up.

Is there a procedure for re-using old disks in a different server. How do I format them etc. The current setup on the server is to 9.1GB HDD - Mirrored. How can I safely add in Hard Disks?

[Prashant (I am Back)]

Hi,

Please you acu and help you self.
See the userguide from the following link.
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/software-management/acumatrix/index.html

Post if require more help.

Regards,
PRashant S.

[e4services]

Elise,

I do not know what "Please you acu and help you self." means but here is my 2 cents or pence. You have a mirror set. Unfortunately you can not expand a mirror without replacing each drive, one at a time, with larger drives. But you can add drives to the server to add new logical drives. You could add one if you do not need redundancy, and make a RAID0 single volume from a drive of a number of drives or you could add 2 drives and make a new mirror, creating a new volume to format.
Either way, using the old drives will not disturb your current configuration. When you attach them the controller will ask you what to do with them, configure itself as you tell it, initialize them and make them available to the OS to be partitioned and formatted to your needs.
And yes the Array Configuration Utility (ACU) manual will help you understand the steps.

[Elise Purdie_1]

Thanks for the responses. I just wanted to make sure my current config would not be disturbed as I have only added 'brand new' disks in the past.

Thanks

[Ed Cox]

Elise,
When you say you are running out of diskspace...is your goal to add more space to the existing drive (i.e. C: parition?)
If so...depending on the age of the controller you CAN expand a RAID 1 set if you add an even number of drives. I'm assuming that the age of your server (roughly 1996 or 97) is using a Smart 2-DH controller. This controller or the one right after it...the 3200...can expand RAID 1 sets with an even number of drives added to the array. Once the expansion is done...that's where it gets tricky. Are we talking NT4 or Win2K?
Once the expansion is done...certain controllers allow you to Extend the existing logical drive. The way you can tell if your controller supports this is to run the ACU and highlight logical drive 1 and look over to the right and you will (or won't) see the Migrate or Extend option. If you do see this option then you have the ability to stretch the logical drive over the new free expanded space. Remember...we're still talking at the hardware array level so far. Make sure if you're running NT4 to have SP6 or Win2k to have at least SP3 in place before you do this. So... once your extension is done, then using either HP's Virtual Replicator-Online Volume Growth or Server Magic...you can "stretch" the C: parition over the new free space...PROVIDED that the new free space is directly adjacent to the partition you want to extend. The size of the new C: drive might be limited to 4GB if we're talking NT4 but can be larger with Win2k.
Let me know if you have additional questions.
Ed