extending storage Proliant 8500

[Steffen Vorein_1]

I have a urgent requirement to extend the storage on my pl8500 machine. currently there is a 4*9GB internal storage array (RAID5).
What do you suggest, to extend the capacity?
- new drives (36GB?), to replace the internals
or an additional external array, what do i need for this option, apart from the drives ;-) Afaik, an external storage unit, and an additional array controler?
If i replace the internal drives only, will i be able to do this on the running system, replace the drives one by one, waiting till the array has rebuild after each one, and if finished, i have some additional space to enlarge the primary partion?
any hints or suggestions?

[Prashant (I am Back)]

Hi,

we can update teh hdd till
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10388_div/10388_div.HTML

Hard Drives Wide Ultra3 Universal Drives â Hot Plug
72.8-GB Wide Ultra3 SCSI 10,000 rpm Drive (1² )

232432-B22
36.4-GB Wide Ultra3 SCSI 10,000 rpm Drive (1² )

176496-B22
18.2-GB Wide Ultra3 SCSI 10,000 rpm Drive (1² )

142673-B22
36.4-GB Wide Ultra3 SCSI 15,000 rpm Drive (1² )

232916-B22
18.2-GB Wide Ultra3 SCSI 15,000 rpm Drive (1² )

188122-B22

What i can suggest good option replace one hdd with the higher capacity then it will rebuild. So replace all hdd with higher capacity then. then use ACU to extend the size .

Regards

[Prashant (I am Back)]

Hi,

Please look at this also
-------------

Upgrading Hard Drive Capacity
You can increase the storage capacity on a system even if there are no available
drive bays by swapping drives one at a time for higher capacity drives. This
method is viable as long as a fault-tolerance method is running.à´ Replacing, Moving, or Adding Hard Drives 49
CAUTION: Because it can take up to 15 minutes per gigabyte
to rebuild the data in the new configuration, the system is unprotected
against drive failure for many hours while a given drive is upgraded.
Perform drive capacity upgrades only during periods of minimal system
activity.
To upgrade hard drive capacity:
1. Back up all data.
2. Replace any drive. The data on the new drive is recreated from redundant
information on the remaining drives.
CAUTION: Do not replace any other drive until data rebuild on
this drive is complete.
3. When data on the new drive has been rebuilt (the Activity LED turns off),
repeat the previous step for the other drives in the array, one at a time.
When you have replaced all drives, you can use the extra capacity to either create
new logical drives or extend existing logical drives. For more information about
these procedures, refer to the HP Array Configuration Utility User Guide.


Regards,
Prashant

[Steffen Vorein_1]

Thanks, i think the replacement of the internal drives with 36GB drives will be a good option for me, currently. The 72Gb drives are too expensive. And, another point, more data on the same drives typically means more concurrent access, and for this reason seems to be better to add a second array to reduce access times