Upgrade Drives

[Henry Sacco]

I need to upgrade a pair of 18 gig mirrored drives to something larger. Can someone suggest an easy way to do this without loosing data? I would prefer not to reinstall the OS and apps on the new drives.

[JohnWRuffo]

Henry:

What server is this installed in?

Does the server have a SmartArray Controller in it?

What O/S?

Let us know?
-john

[Henry Sacco]

Yes, its a DL360 running Windows 2000 and yes it has a smart array controller.

[JohnWRuffo]

Henry:

Here is a PDF document that walks you throught the whole process:
ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/servers/proliantstorage/drives-enclosures/Procedures%20of%20expanding%20active%20volume%20with%20W2000.pdf

Be sure you have the latest bios loaded on your DL360 as well as the array controller.

Then you can use the Array Configuration Utility from your Smart Start CD (recommended) or download the ACU for Windows:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/19658.html

You will also need to download the DiskPart.exe utility from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/

Here is a PDF Guide for the ACU:
ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/supportinformation/techpubs/user_reference_guides/239449-004_rev4_us.pdf

Let me know if you need any more help? G'luck with your expansion! -john

[Henry Sacco]

John, thanks for the tip, but i dont think this method will work for me. I should have mentioned that the proliant in question only has two drive bays. Seeing that there are two existing drives in a mirrored config, there is no way to expand them.

Any other thoughts?

[JohnWRuffo]

Here is what you do...

You have two 18GB drives in a mirror. You take one drive out (simulate a failure) and insert a new drive. The new drive is a 36GB or 72GB drive.

You let this new drive re-mirror (rebuild) and then after it has completed the rebuild, you insert the second 36 or 72GB drive and have it rebuild the mirror. Your mirror has not changed yet.

Once that has completed rebuilding, now you are ready to "expand" the unallocated space into your existing array.

Then you perform the O/S expansion.

Does that make sense?

[Henry Sacco]

Yes, that makes sense. Just two clarifications though. Once the rebuilding of both drives is complete, i would expand the array using the Array Utily, then boot to windows and do the same thing using disk management?

Correct?

[JohnWRuffo]

Yes. Exactly. My preference is to use a SmartStart CD for the expansion. I like my volumes offline without the O/S getting involved. The process is a slow going one anyway, why let the O/S slow it down some more.

Next is the O/S expansion... the DiskPart.exe is the key to the whole process there. Be sure to read up on it. There are a few gotchas to look out for:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?InCC_hdn=true&Catalog=LCID=1033&CDID=EN-US-KB&PRODLISTsrc=ON&withinResults=&QuerySource=gASr_Query&Product=win2000&Queryc=diskpart.exe&Query=diskpart.exe&KeywordType=ALL&maxResults=25&Titles=false&numDays=&InCC=on
This is a good place to start to familiarize yourself with what to watch out for.

I hope this info helps you! let me know if you need any other info?

G'luck! -john