extending a logical drive

[andy steven]

Hi i have a 5300 smart start controller and what to extend the logical drive. I add the disks and expand the array fine, when using the ACU it states w2k does not support expanding a logical drive.

I recreated the array from scratch and this time in w2k i set the disk a dynamic then added the extra disks and expanded the array, w2k can not see the extra space????

[Patrick v.d. Veen]

Hi there,

As far as I know the 5300 controler is not capable of expanding a logical drive. As you have noticed you can expand the array but that's it.

Patrick

[Thomas Hoberg]

I can suggest two options:

1) Using a resize tool like partition magic

2) Generating another partition and then combining them into a spanned volume under NT/Win2k

Option two requires a reboot if you need to add space to a boot drive, but works immediately otherwise (without any performance hits that I know of).

[andy steven]

thanks

the controller does allow for expansion but i get an error that w2k does not support it, i created another logical drive and then spanned it in windows using dynamic disks

[Mark Mc Daniels]

Once the drive array expansion is complete, you will need to go back into the Array Configuration Utility "ACU" and highlight the logical drive and then select extend. This drive space will now show as unconfigured space in disk management at the end of that logical drive.

[kris rombauts]

Andy,

if you get that far that the W2K disk management shows you the extra space, next step would be to use a tool from Microsoft to also be able to use that space in Windows.

Have a look here :

Q article Q304736. Microsoft have a tool called Diskpart
that will extend an existing NTFS volume to use the free space.

It talks about a MSCS cluster shared disk but it is not limited to a cluster configuration, ignore the details that are specific to clustering.


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q304736


HTH

Kris

[andy steven]

Mark

I am using the ACU that came with smartstart 6, I can extend the array ok, but can not extend the logical drive. I called Compaq and they say this function is not supported using ACU.

If I don't create another logical drive from within the ACU windows can not see any extra space!!!

By creating another logical drive within the ACU windows can then see another disk, if I set this disk to dynamic and then go back to the original disk in windows and right click I get the option to expand the dynamic volume, windows now sees two disks and both are refered to as the D drive.

regards

[Mark Mc Daniels]

What version of the ACU are you using? Double check please. Also, what service pack for win2k?
From the users guide for the 5300 controller...
"IMPORTANT: When extending a logical drive under Windows 2000, upgrade the disk to
DYNAMIC before creating a partition on that disk. If the disk already has a partition when
it is upgraded to DYNAMIC, Windows 2000 may not allow logical drive extension. Refer to
the Windows 2000 documentation for details about DYNAMIC and BASIC disks."
What you've created is a simple volume set in win2k. As Kris refered previously, to extend the logical drive in the os, use diskpart.

[Alex Feldman]

I go the same message, and I just downloaded the latest ACU. So what's the bottom line?

Can this be done?
What are the exact steps?
Is this supported by Compaq/HP?

Thanks.

Alex

[Peter Allen_1]

FYI
Win2k won???t extend a partition created on a ???basic disk???
P.

[Will Clark]

So I???ve read and re-read these postings and the Microsoft q article about diskpart.exe and I still have some questions.
First, my initial set up: I have a 5300 going to a storageworks 4354 with six 18.1 Gig drives. The array is raid 0+1 so I have about 54 gig of space. This array is my logical disk 1.

I just added two more 18.1 gig drives and tried to extend my logical drive 1 and obviously ran into the problem that this thread is discussing.
This is what I???ve done so far.
In the ACU version 2.90A, I created another logical disk 2.
In the disk management system of w2k the disk showed up as another drive
The wizard appear when I went into disk management and asked me put a disk signature on the drive and make it a dynamic volume. I did this. I called my volume ???D4??? and I set dynamic disk to ???simple disk???

That???s all I???ve done so far. Because I???ve ran into the following questions.
Here is what I understand should be my next steps but I want to make sure:

My logical dirve 1 is BASIC and from what I???ve read I have to make it dynamic in order to extend it. 1) Is this true?
And 2) When I do this should I make it a simple disk? It seems so since my hardware is taking care of the raid. 3) Microsoft says you wont loose data when going from basic to dynamic. Is that ture?

After I make my logical disk 1 a simple disk dynamic (which by the way is Drive E: on my system) then I go span the two logical disks so they have the same drive letter ???E:???

Then I go into the diskpart.exe utility and according to the q article basically type in a few commands like the volume name, in my case ???D4??? and type expand.

Next go into the ACU, click on the logical drive 2 and click on expand.

And hopefully that???s it.

Is this all correct? Am I missing a step?

Thank you all so much for helping me.
-will

[andy steven]

u can only extend a locigal drive that was created as dynamic, not one that was upgraded to dynamic from basic.

from what i can work out from the above MS artical unless the space appears at the end of the existing partition, i.e. on the same disk (which this controller doesn't) you will have to span two dynamic disks together from within "Disk management".

The disk you want to extend must have been created dynamic.

epping

[Will Clark]

5300 will support it and the q article says it's possible,
"Some storage hardware will, by default, automatically create a new logical disk and volume for the new space despite the fact that the expansion of the existing logical disk is a possible option."

To get it all working I think you have to use diskpart.exe.

Are you 100% sure about not being able to expand it you upgrade from BASIC to DYNAMIC.

[andy steven]

if u go to expand a logical drive in the ACU you will get a warning that windows 2000 does not support this option and you may lose all data, I have phoned Compaq and thay say it is not supported.

If you go to extend a dynamic disk that was upgraded from a basic disk windows will give you an error that the disk was not created as dynamic and therefore the expansion can not take place.

epping

[Will Clark]

Andy-
I have successfully extended my logical drive with a basic drive WITHOUT restoring or loosing any data.
Here???s what you have to do in this order.
0) Upgrade to W2k SP3
1) Upgrade the firm ware for the 5300 control to version 2.92
2) Upgrade the firm ware of the hard drives using the Rompaq 3.03 (you will need 12 floppy disks and reboot using disk 1: follow the instructions: the flash takes a while)
3) Upgrade the ACU (array control utility) to the HP version 6.x (the Compaq 2.90 A version wont do the extend properly.)
4) Go into the HP???s ACU. It???s a web interface, it will try to log you on as administrator. The default password is ???administrator???
5) Click on the array you want.
6) Click on standard configuration
7) Click on Extend
8) Type in the recommended maximum
9) Click on Save (if you???re using a 600X800 screen you have to scroll over to see the save button)
10) This will take a while. (after you save the config you can close the web browser and go into the 2.90A version and look at the progress bar)
11) After the extend is done Reboot the computer.
12) Go into the 2wk Disk Manager, you should see the free space at the end of your logical drive
13) The following is for a basic drive
14) run diskpart.exe (you can download it from Microsoft)
15) type list volume
you should see the volume number of the drive you want to extend. Lets say its volume 3 you want to extend
16) type select volume 3
17) type extend
18) that???s it.
good luck.

[Will Clark]

Andy-
I have successfully extended my logical drive with a basic drive WITHOUT restoring or loosing any data.
Here???s what you have to do in this order.
0) Upgrade to W2k SP3
1) Upgrade the firm ware for the 5300 control to version 2.92
2) Upgrade the firm ware of the hard drives using the Rompaq 3.03 (you will need 12 floppy disks and reboot using disk 1: follow the instructions: the flash takes a while)
3) Upgrade the ACU (array control utility) to the HP version 6.x (the Compaq 2.90 A version wont do the extend properly.)
4) Go into the HP???s ACU. It???s a web interface, it will try to log you on as administrator. The default password is ???administrator???
5) Click on the array you want.
6) Click on standard configuration
7) Click on Extend
8) Type in the recommended maximum
9) Click on Save (if you???re using a 600X800 screen you have to scroll over to see the save button)
10) This will take a while. (after you save the config you can close the web browser and go into the 2.90A version and look at the progress bar)
11) After the extend is done Reboot the computer.
12) Go into the 2wk Disk Manager, you should see the free space at the end of your logical drive
13) The following is for a basic drive
14) run diskpart.exe (you can download it from Microsoft)
15) type list volume
you should see the volume number of the drive you want to extend. Lets say its volume 3 you want to extend
16) type select volume 3
17) type extend
18) that???s it.
good luck.

[Will Clark]

Andy-
I have successfully extended my logical drive with a basic drive WITHOUT restoring or loosing any data.
Here???s what you have to do in this order.
0) Upgrade to W2k SP3
1) Upgrade the firm ware for the 5300 control to version 2.92
2) Upgrade the firm ware of the hard drives using the Rompaq 3.03 (you will need 12 floppy disks and reboot using disk 1: follow the instructions: the flash takes a while)
3) Upgrade the ACU (array control utility) to the HP version 6.x (the Compaq 2.90 A version wont do the extend properly.)
4) Go into the HP???s ACU. It???s a web interface, it will try to log you on as administrator. The default password is ???administrator???
5) Click on the array you want.
6) Click on standard configuration
7) Click on Extend
8) Type in the recommended maximum
9) Click on Save (if you???re using a 600X800 screen you have to scroll over to see the save button)
10) This will take a while. (after you save the config you can close the web browser and go into the 2.90A version and look at the progress bar)
11) After the extend is done Reboot the computer.
12) Go into the 2wk Disk Manager, you should see the free space at the end of your logical drive
13) The following is for a basic drive
14) run diskpart.exe (you can download it from Microsoft)
15) type list volume
you should see the volume number of the drive you want to extend. Lets say its volume 3 you want to extend
16) type select volume 3
17) type extend
18) that???s it.
good luck.

[AtlantisNet]

Actually, I was able to increase the drive space of a single partition without any problems. I have a Compaq ML350 server with 4 9.1 GB drives in a raid 5 configuration using the Compaq Smary Array 431 controller. 1 of the 4 drives is an online spare. The physical drives in the array were configured with 2 basic NTFS partitions. A C: partition of 4GB and a D: partition of 14GB. After the upgrade, I ended up with a D: partition of approximately 63GB. Here is how I did it:

1. Replaced the 4 9.1GB drives with 4 36.4GB U320 Universal Hard Drives (1") 10,000 rpm (286713-B22).

2. Each drive was replaced one at a time starting with the first data drive 0 and ending with the spare.

3. Installed Windows 2000 SP3.

4. Installed all Microsoft Critical Updates.

5. Upgraded the Compaq Array Configuration Utility to version 2.90.65.0.

6. Upgraded the Compaq Smart Array 431 ROM BIOS to version 1.22 B.

7. Upgraded the Compaq Smart Array-2 Controllers Driver for Windows 2000 to version 5.14.0.0 B.

8. Installed HP ProLiant Array Configuration Utility 1.10.20 (6.20.9.0) a.k.a. Compaq Array Configuration Utility XE.

9. Extended the drive using the Compaq Array Configuration Utility XE.

10. Rebooted.

11. Ran the Microsoft Diskpart Command Line Utility (diskpart.exe) to extend the D: partition and use the newly available unallocated space.

12. Rebooted.

[Dan Moraru]

I have followed the steps outlined here, however I do not see the free space (unpartitioned space in Windows 2000 Disk Management or diskpart.exe. The ACU 6.4 displays me the extended array with 1 logical drive that was initially created and the unused space, which is equal to the space on the new SCSI drive I added to my RAID 5 array. Do I need to extend the logical drive in ACU 6.4 in order to make Windows 2000 "see" that there is extra space available?

Dan.

[AtlantisNet]

Yes, it needs to be extended. Then you'll reboot, run diskpart.exe and finally reboot again. See steps 9-12 in my post above.