Quick question about a RAID1 (mirror) disk upgrade

[Sonny Van Hook]

Hi All,

I apologize in advance if this question has been asked before...I couldn't find an answer.

I have a DL360 G3 server with a pair of 36.4 GB SCSI disks. I would like to replace these with a pair of 72 GB SCSI disks.

Will this work?
1) Pull 2nd 36GB disk out
2) Insert a 72 GB replacement disk
3) Rebuild mirror
4) Pull 1st 36GB disk out
5) Insert a 72 GB replacement disk
6) Rebuild mirror

Will I need a tool like Partition Magic to allow the mirror to utilitize the new space? I'm a bit scared to try a tool like that on a mirrored volume.

Thanks,
Sonny

[Igor Karasik · Accepted solution]

Sonny,
generally it will work, but in order to use new space you need to run some tools.
For windows you can run diskpart, but if you use only one partition - C:\ - you have problem because you cannot extend system volume with diskpart.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325590/en-us
But if you want to extend data volume (D:\ partition for example) you can do it with diskpart without any problem.
If you have only system partition you still can use tools like PartitionMagic , but it is bit risky to use such tools for server environment (although I did it several times on servers without problems)
Furtermore, you cannot use PartitionMagic if you use dynamic disks.
Anyway, make sure you have good backup.

Another way is to do server backup/replace disks/server restore (you can use GHOST like tools as well). In this case you can use old disks if you have problem during restore.

[Terri Harris]

Just to clarify:
(1) Free unallocated space will show up in Disk Manager once you have completed the hard drive upgrade.
(2) You don't need any 3rd party tool if it is ok just to create a new partition or volume with the new space.

Note: Even though the hard drives are hot plug, it is safest to down the server first before pulling out a hard drive. The hot plug feature is designed to allow removal of a hard drive that has failed. And unfortunately there is no option in the SmartArray utilities to manually fail a drive.