Extending logical for smart array 642

[CA1323761]

I'm extending logical drive with smart array 642 on W2K SP4. I've got 5 72GB in RAID 5 (Dynamic Disk)and adding another 72GB HDD. Array expand step is done (using ACU). Current running logical expansion from ACU and get the following status in controller :-

#785, Background parity initialization is currently queued or in progress on logical drive 1 ( RAID 5 in array A). If background parity initialization is queued, it will start when I/O is performed on the drive. When background parity initialization completes, the performance of the logical drive will improve.

In disk management, I can see the added HDD as "unallocated". Now, should I use diskpart to extend my drive to include the unallocated space. Any special task that I should be aware before doing the diskpart

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------ ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 34 GB 0 B
Disk 1 Online 339 GB 68 GB *

Thanks,
Yong

[Tarek Kawach · Accepted solution]

Yong:

Make sure that the extention has completed completely in the ACU.

Once that is done ; then yes you can use your 3rd party software to extend you unallocated space or added to your other partions.

- NOTE: make sure that there is no other status messages in the ACU ; normally it used to take 20 mintues per gig to expand the logical drive.


Don't do anything in Disk management till the ACU said it completed the expansin or extentions.

Regards,

Tarek.

[CA316613]

Before you run the diskpart you will want to bring the server up in Safe Mode. This will ensure that any open handles accessing that partition are closed.

Also, be sure to use the Diskpart that goes along with your OS. I downloaded the latest Dispart.exe from Microsoft only to discover that it doesn't work for Windows 2003 Server. W2K3 and W2K3 SP1 have separate versions that are built into the OS.