expanding RAID5 set

[graeme welsh]

doing this just now
just expanded the array, waiting for the thing to reinitialise before itll let me do the the logical disk expansion, just how long does this take normally?

[Mike Bollman_1]

not sure off hand. I will test it with a box on my desk and let you know.

[Mike Bollman_1]

so how did you fair on this?

[graeme welsh]

tonight is the big night
worked on my test system (adding one disk (72gb) to a 3x72gb raid5 set, did some strange things, took a while (about 1 hr) to initialise the newly expanded array, although it was available during this time. seemed to go ok
tonight will do it on the live system, have been busy backing up the 180gb worth of fotos (its a database server for a traffic tunnel, thers a picture per vehicl from all traffic from the last year), around 4200000 files.... even with SDLT hung directly on the server, the backup is taking a while...
but thanks for your help, hopefully itll go fine, will let u know

[Mike Bollman_1]

graeme just wondering how this went?

[Matt Lawrence]

I am about to add a disk to a RAID5 set, basic. I would sure like to know if this worked. Any follow-up information on this would be greatly appreciated.

Matt L.

[graeme_15]

yes,
was possible. a few things to watch out for though
take a backup first, obviously
the steps the other guy outlined were fine, just follow them, i.e expand the array, then the logical drive, then use diskpart to allow windows to see the bigger disk
however!! depending on what your adding to the system, this can take a long time
we added 4x72gb to an existing array, it took 3 days for the array to expand (was always accessible during this time though(, i think HP say expect 15min per gig
expanding logical disk was quicker.
watch out, the maximum size of an expanded logical drive which the ACU can handle is 255gb, our logical drive was already 200gb, so we could only add another 55gb to it..
apart from the that, no issues, no data loss, and no downtime

[Prashant (I am Back)]

HI

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/smartstart/index.html

Regards,
Prashant

[graeme welsh]

Prashant

what interesting information is contained in this link?
is it possible to expand a logical drive greater than 255gb with the latest version of ACU?

[Mark Johnston_1]

I am also having this problem with the 255 GB limit on an expanded array. I can't add any more space to the logical drive.

I just spoke to Conpaq Support and they informed me that this 255 GB limit has something to do with the number of cylinders and sectors on a disk. This 255GB is the MAX size allowed even with the most recent version of HP Array Configuration Utility. He said that there is a Beta version being tested now that will get around this restriction and allow up to 2 TB of space, but it's not available from HP yet but he suggested I try to search for it from one of HP's beta testers.

Does anyone have this Beta version of the Array Configuration Utility I can use?

Thanks.