DL380 Disk Array

[Ray Lee_2]

I have a DL380-G3 with 6x76GB-Raid5 hard drives and I am running out of space. I have some 146GB drives that I would like to replace the 76GB.

What is the procedure to replace each 76GB drives with the 146GB?

Thanks,

Ray Lee

[Mauro Rusignuolo · Accepted solution]

if you cannot stop your system in order to make a back-up, replace the HDs, rebuild the new raid and restore, ...
you have to replace the HDs one by one, waiting for the rebuild process ends, each time.
after of that, you can expand your array...

bye

TJK.

[mkk]

i just did a very similar upgrade on an ML350-G3 server. the Jackal suggested i use Acronis Disk Director 10.0, which worked great. My drawback was that my server only has one logical drive with 4 partitions, including the system partition. the system partition was the only partition i was not able to extend. a rebuild and restore would be the best way to do this upgrade, but i needed to keep my server up and running, so i ended up replacing one HD at a time and used ACU to expand the new drive space and then Acronis Disk Director to extend the data partitions. be aware that the whole process can take a few days. it took about 3 days just to replace the HDs one by one. it took another 2 days to expand the drive space. it took about 1 hour of server downtime to extend the array. so, if you want to do this without rebuilding your array, here is the process i used.

-make a good back-up.
-test your backup to make sure it is good.
-replace drives one at a time. check your system log to see when the drive status is ok after each drive is replaced. do not replace the next one until the previous is ok. first drive takes the longest.
-use ACU to expand your array.
-extend your array. use dikpart (if your system drive and data partitions are on different logical drives). use a third party software, like Acronis Disk Director, if all your partitions are on one logical drive.
-after the upgrade is complete, randomly check data on the server to see that everything is ok. check any license-shared software to make sure they still work.

[Ray Lee_2]

I don't particular like either of these procedure since is our Rapid Deployment Server. Plus I find out this morning that it in RAID 1+0. So not clear if your suggestion will work.

Maybe it's time to install HBA's in this system.

Thanks for your advice....rel

[Mauro Rusignuolo]

also will work if you are using a RAID 10 ...
bye.

TJK.

[Ray Lee_2]

I have started the process of remove one drive at a time.

One of your steps says:

-use ACU to expand your array.

I don't see the option to expand the array in ACU.

[Mauro Rusignuolo]

ypu will se the option at the end of the rebuil process of the complete array.
all the 4 HDDs

bye.

TJK.

[Ray Lee_2]

I want to replace all 6 drives....which is at a RAID 1+0.

Going good so for.

Thanks

[Mauro Rusignuolo]

yes, six.
excuse me.

bye

TJK.

[Mauro Rusignuolo]

if you know which one are mirrored, you can swap HHDs 3 by 3 ...

in two steps you can finish the job.

Bye.

TJK.

[Ray Lee_2]

That is true, but I am on the 4th one now.

Thanks

[Mauro Rusignuolo]

ok.
excuse me for the delay ...
if I gave that information a few hours ago, pheraps, at this time, your job shuold be finished...

Bye.


TJK.

[Ray Lee_2]

All drives are installed and I see the new Unused space. I did not see the expand array, the only command I saw was to extend the array.

I tried DISPART but it tells me I can't extend this volume.

I must have missed a step or two.

THanks

[Joel Belizario]

Are you trying to extend the boot partition? Diskpart can only extend data partitions:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325590

[Mauro Rusignuolo]

you can use acronis disk director suite.

Bye.

TJK.

[Ray Lee_2]

So, my Raid 1+0 which had 6x72GB drives and we replaced all 6 with 146GB drives can't be expanded without a third party software?

Might be easier to rebuilt the system? Well not really since it is my RDP server.

Okay thanks all!

[Mauro Rusignuolo]

only if you have to extend boot partition.

[Ray Lee_2]

Well the person that built this system made all drives Raid 1+0 and boot partition.

Fun fun!

Thanks for all the replies tho....


Ray Lee

[Mauro Rusignuolo]

thank you for the "assigned points" ... :-)

bye

TJK.

[Ray Lee_2]

You got em!

Have a great rest of today.

[JOCELYN SLOAN]

Ray, I downloaded a new ACU (Array configuration utility) for my proliant server from the HP website. Just do a search for ACU.

But maybe your job is already done, since I'm going thru the process a couple weeks after you. :)