Expanding Logical Drives

[ng93448]

I have a DL580 with a 4300 Disk Enclosure. I implemented a RAID 5 with 7 * 146 GB disk and presently i am in the process of expanding one of the Logical drives. I have added extra 7 * 146 GB disk, I used the ACU to expand the ARRAY, i could see the 7 Disks as part of the new Array but they are not available when i run Disk Administration. Inside ACU i see the disk as unsed space. So how do i use this free space to expand my logical volume. Inside ACU i can not find any option to expand logical volume. I use ACU version 6.40.11.0
Any suggestion wull be highly appreciated.
Many Thanks

[Sunil Jerath]

Hello,
Please make sure that you have the latest driver as well as the firmware of your SArray controller installed. Here is the link for the latest ACU:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/14185.html

Regards,

[Justin Hoyt]

What OS are you running?

[Abdul Sathar]

Hi,
Assuming that you are running W2K server -
You have to use diskpart.exe from the WIndows resource kit to extend the data volume into unallocated disk space. You can extend the NTFS volume with diskpart.exe while the disk remain a basic disk.

Use the extend command to incorporate unallocated free space into an existing volume while preserving data.
Abdul Sathar

[ernst limbrunner]

hi

just above the yellow box that indicats free space you should see a purple logical drive.

click on this drive. then click on "expand" (right side of screen.
push the lever with the mouse button, so all free space will be assigned to the logical disk.

save and exit

-------

now be patient. when the expansion process has finished (look at the blinking drive leds) you must use disk administrator to use the unused space. when you have a dynamic disk, you can use windows to expand the existion partition. if you have a basic disk use diskpart.exe (download from microsoft)

MAKE GODDAM SURE YOU HAVE SP3 or SP4 installed when usind windows 2000 !!!!

best regards from germany
ernesto

[Prashant (I am Back)]

Hi,

Controller you have can support both :
Online Capacity Expansion.
Online Capacity Extension

Is this the condition we are in ( Check Image ) if yes. Then
select driver to extend then follow the instruction. that will do as i have done the same way.

Note: Do take backup before anysteps are performed.

Regards,
PrashantS.

[Brent_34]

You expand an array which it sounds like you did. Once you see the unused space listed under the array in the ACU you can then click on the logical drive within that array and the extend option should appear on the right.

We've run into circumstances where if you save the configuration after expanding without extending you have to wait for the expansion to complete. If you expand, extend then save the configuration the logical drive extension gets Queued up.

Could it be the expansion is still in progress? Do you see any status messages in the ACUXE indicating an expansion or background parity is still in process? If you exit the ACUXE are the middle drive lights flashing on the drives? This indicates expansion, extension or rebuild in progress.

If this is the case remember expansion can take anywhere from 10 - 40 minutes per Gig for the entire array. Extension of the logical drive can also take 10 - 40 minutes per Gig. This all depends on your controller rebuild settings in the ACUXE and the amount of disk access to the server. We've seen servers take months to rebuild or expand due to drive access and low rebuild/expansion settings.

Once the extension is complete at the array controller level, unused space will show up at the end of the physical disk within disk management of the O/S.

[Brent_34]

And just to add to that...if this is windows 2000 and you are using dynamic disks you need to have at least a 5th generation or higher controller, latest controller firmware, SP3 or higher, and the latest ACUXE. If you attempt extension on a dynamic disk without the above IT WILL BECOME CORRUPTED eventually.

Happy extending.