5i Array Extension taking it's time

[Phills1]

So I have a DL380 G3 with a 5i array controller running Netware 6.5 SP6 in it the disks were configured as 4x 36.4 10K disks Raid 5 with online spare. Since I am now out of space I have booted into the smart start acu removed the online spare added an two additional 36.4 and kicked off the array expansion this was early on Sat morning after more then 27 hours it's still going any idea how long this can go on for. Also what get out options do I have, ideally this server needs to be back up and running in the morning (Mon) I take it if I reboot before it completes there is no chance of the OS booting and it been usable?

FYI: The server does not have a BBWC installed!

Thanks for any input

[Mark Matthews]

I've just done this myself this weekend!
Slightly different circumstances but near enough...

I'm afraid you'll just have to wait it out.

What you should have done is...

Run ACU within the OS (not sure if this is possible in NW???)
Amend the Expand Priority to HIGH on the 5i BEFORE starting the expansion.

The one I've just done was with a 6402 controller, adding a 300GB disk into an array already containing a RAID5 logical drive of 500GB.

With the expand priority set to HIGH it still took around 30hrs to run!

Unsure of the rebooting while expanding question, but I suspect without a BBWC you may not be able to...

Mark...

[gregersenj]

There is an ACU for NW, so it should be possible to do it on-line.

I haven't got a clue, how well NW reacts to the LUN growing.

>Mark it's not importent how you set the priority. It will use as much time as possible.
The priority is all aboute OS vs reconstruct, when it's working on-line.

RAID 5, no bbwc, and multible 10K drives, that will take some time.

To my best knowledge, it will reconstruct drives one by one.