DL385 SmartArray 6i add disks to RAID5 steps

[JohnMartin]

I will be adding 2 disks (146 GB SCSI) to the current 4 disk array to fill the slots at Thanksgiving, and would like to know the correct sequence of activities.  From what I have read, I should do the following:

1. Power down and insert disks (I will also be installing 32GB RAM at this time with extra cooling fans)

2. Power up and run ACU (following items from HP Array Configuration Utility Users Guide)

3. Select the Smart Array

4. Click Controller Settings

4. Choose the option to Expand Array (which should show up because of the new drives in the slots)

5. Choose the Array and Drives and Finish

6. (I DO NOT choose to create new logical drives, because I want to extend the existing drive of the array - is this correct?)

7. Choose SAVE and wait until this finishes before extending the drive.

8. Follow Extend Logical Drive in the same User's Guide above (or do I use Windows Computer Management - Disk Management to do this??)

            Windows Server 2008 OS on this Server.

9. Choose the only logical drive on the Array (my boot drive) for extending

10. Set the new size (will it show the available size or do I have to calculate this? if so, what would it be for six 146 GB drives in a RAID5 array?)

11. Choose Finish and Save, then wait.

When these steps are done, am I done? From my reading I believe so.

Any pointers from anyone?  Also, everyone says backup before you do this - is there a best practice for this and using what?  I am new to all this - the hardware person no longer works here, yet I have to pull all this together and get it working while production is down on Thanksgiving - the system is for SQL Server.

Thank you everyone!

JohnMartin

[hpkasabbagh]

Hi,

Yes, you can apply this steps. You can find 'join logical drive" too instead "Expand array" to expand your RAID.

Best regards,

kasabbagh

[JohnMartin]

Completed:

In ACU:

1. After inserting drives: Select High Priority for both options in Controller Settings

2. Choose Expand Array and select both drives (goal is one volume from 6 - 146.8 GB SCSI drives) and click Save

3. After 50 % trasfroming, start SQL Server services to make ready for production use after holidays (about 45 hours into Expansion

4. Transformning reached 100% at about 85 hours

5. In ACU select Extend Volume and set size to max of 683.6 GB 

6. it showed volume now at 683.6 GB, but windows still at 410 GB

7. Reboot after about an hour of nothing happening - still no added space in Windows Explorer

8. Went into Computer Managements / Storage Management - there the unused space showed in the graphic view.

9. Right click graphic view of volume and choose Expand and select full amount of unused space.

10. Immediately the unused space was part of drive and available for use.

11. Total time about 86 hours - the ACU documentation was correct for Expanding, but not for Extending (yet the documentation was for some ACU version different than mine because of differences in the interface)

12. Running Windows Server 2008 which had capability to Extend drive in Computer Storage Management interface.

Thanks for help.