Upgrading hard drives on ml350...cannot see new space

[Brian Mayo]

A project I called HP support for, client with an ML350 P3 1.0. LC2 RAID controller. Running SBS2K. It had a pair of 18 gig SCSI drives in RAID 1, as a single 18 gig C volume. Needed to add more hard drive space. I was told when I called HP before to check this plan before ordering new drives, that this plan would work.

Plan: Replace pair of 18 gig drives, one at a time, with 72 gig drives. One day pull first 18 giger, replace with 72 giger...upon reboot let RAID 1 rebuild. Few days later, pull remaining 18 giger, replace with remaining 72 giger...upon reboot let RAID 1 rebuild. Once complete...the OS volume would still be 18 gig C...but if I went to disk management, I'd see the remaining 54 gigs to claim as an extended drive. Or....at least be able to see it in the RAID config utility..and claim it..create a new E volume.

Tonight that proved not to be the case. Ideas for solutions?

[Shameer.V.A]

Hi Brian,

If You are fixing a higher capacity disk (73GB) on an array of lower capacity disks (18GB), the array will use the lower capacity only (18GB)..

So if you want to utilize the full space of new hdd, I can suggest a workaround, that I have done successfully many times.

This will work fine in Windows/Novell. I'm not sure about Linux & unix.

1. You have to put back your old hdd ( one by one , so that both 18 Gb will be again in mirror & 2* 73 GB will be free.)

2. Now you have to attach new 2*73GB & clear the raid configuration on it ( for a precaution, you may temperorily disconnect existing 2*18GB hdds)

3. Create a new RAID 1 array on new hdds (2*72gb)& remember to check the array bootable feature is enabled, which will be enabled by default.

4. Boot the server with both arrays connected ( 2*18GB & 2*72GB) with win98 startup disk.

5. Run Norton Ghost ( I have used Norton Ghost 2001 & 2003 , both are successful to copy NTFS & FAT32 & Novell NEtware ) to do a disk to disk copy. - only dos exe version is required for this procedure. ( maximum size is 1.2MB only),
If you don't have Norton ghost please give me your mail ID, I can send you the same to you..

6. While running Norton ghost please make sure you are selecting the correct arrays ( Source as 18GB & Destination as 72Gb).

7. While selecting the destination disk, you are given the option to resize the existing partitions also.

8. After completion of copy process, shutdown the server & remove old array (2*18gb) & start the server with new array (2*73gb) & check the raid status in array controller utility. & start the server normally.

9. Now you are having your original array intact , in case of any problem you can do a failback also..

Note: I have also used this method for cloning RAID5 to RAID1 for a Disaster recovery option to customer & the setup is working fine for last 3 years.

If you have any query please reply back...

Hope this informations will help you...

Regards

Shameer

[Shameer.V.A]

Hi Brian,
You may go through the following thread

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=987403

Regards,

Shameer

[Brian Mayo]

Thanks for the reply Shameer. I have used Ghost, Partition Magic, True Image, many times on desktops....never attempted to use one on a server. I do have Ghost 2003 on CD, as well as Acronis True Image 8.0....I just never thought they had RAID controller support, never used them on a server.

OK so the two trips I made to create/move the array to the new drives...went to waste. LOL. And I need to repeat the process in reverse now...since the original 18 gig drives are now "stale", old, outdated.

How long do people recommend, after replacing a drive in the RAID 1, to wait until that new drive is "complete" with the rebuild? I know that first bootup takes about 5 minutes longer...but I'm picturing it taking several more hours to complete quietly in the background. Waiting at least a day recommended?

[Shameer.V.A]

Hi Brian,
Sorry for the late reply.

You have to wait till the rebuilding (mirroring) completed . You can check the mirroring status from the management software installed or by seeing the continuous Hard disk activity.

Array should come to the optimal state from the degraded state, which happens when a disk failure happens

Degraded -->Rebuilding -->optimal.

Then you can put the other hdd also.

Hope these informations will help you...

Please close the thread & assign points, once your query completed.

Best wishes..

Regards

Shameer

[Guy Humphreys]

Brian, in response to your Ghost 2003 query you are totally correct Symantec will not guarantee ghost working with a RAID controller, see below:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/1999010613522725?Open&src=hot&docid=1999012108164025&nsf=ghost.nsf&view=docid&dtype=∏=Norton%20Ghost&ver=2003&osv=&osv_lvl=&seg=hho

It may work but I would advise against it strongly.

Powerquest make a bare metal restore product that may help you and is intended for servers, it used to be called v2i protector but now it is called something else since Symantec took them over, don't know what the new name is but a search on their website should get it.

HTH
Guy