extend array for more then 502 GB

[Igor Karasik]

Hi,
I have ML 370 G3 with Smart array 5312.
four disks of 144 Gb in RAID5 (stripe size 16 Kb), and I want to add two additional disks of 144 Gb to this RAID, to same logical drive.
When I try to extend logical drive I have a message that the max size that I can extend is 514gb.
Exactly as in http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=630767
Thanks to John Ruffo, I read
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?locale=en_US&taskId=110&prodSeriesId=367226&prodTypeId=329290&objectID=PSD_EX040330_CW01
and now my question is:
Do I need to backup\delete existing logical disk and recreate\restore it with 6 disks in order to get 700 Gb (5*140 Gb) on one logical disk or I can do it somehow without backup/delete/recreate.
Thanks

[Vijay_44 · Accepted solution]

Igor,

The customer advisory talks about stripe size migration but what you are trying to do is expand the array and then extend the logical drive. There was an issue with the earlier ACU and extension of logical drives beyond the 500GB mark; it was because of the sector size (max boot option) - but that problem is supposed to be resolved with the latest ACU - try it and see if you can extend the logical drive.

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/19658.html

[JohnWRuffo]

Igor:

The way I read the advisory is that in order to extend beyond the 502GB and keep your existing logicals is to leave a little bit (256KB) of space unpartitioned on the drives.

so... 5 x 256KB = 1280KB or just under 2MB of free space.

or... choose a smaller stripe size 8Kb.

If you did wipe and rebuild your array, you would effectivly bypass the problem. You would be starting out new.

[Igor Karasik]

As Vijay suggested I install latest
ACU (7.15.19.0) and it help !!!!
I extend logical drive to 690 Gb.
Many thanks to Vijay and John.