Upgrade of ProLiant ML110 G3 RAID1 hard disks

[Andrew ARONOFF]

This question has been asked several times, but I've not found a simple answer. (Maybe that's because there isn't one.)

We have a Proliant ML110 G3 server with two 160 GB SATA hard disks connected via hardware (Adaptec controller) in RAID1.

The single disk seen by Windows Server 2003 is divided into 2 partitions, one for the system and the other for data. Both are critically full.

I want to replace the 80 GB disks with 500 GB disks. Here's my proposed procedure:

1. power down the ProLiant, remove both of the 80 GB disks

2. on another "work" PC, partition one of the 500 GB hard disks

3. on the "work" PC, connect either one of the 80 GB disks and use Norton Ghost 2003 to copy its partitions to the 500 GB disk

4. install the 500 GB disk into the ProLiant and power it up

5. enter the RAID BIOS and delete the missing hard disk, then boot into Windows Server 2003

6. power down the ProLiant and install the second 500 GB hard disk

7. power up the ProLiant, enter the RAID BIOS and add the second 500 GB disk to the RAID1 array

I'm almost certain that this will *not* work as described. (Will Norton Ghost 2003 succeed in copying the partitions in step 3? Will Windows Server 2003 boot in step 5?) Where will this proposed procedure go wrong?

[Scott Mickelson]

Did you accomplish this upgrade? I have the same server using an embedded HP RAID controller. I am needing to upgrade the disks on this system. I was going to use Acronis True Image in the same fashion. Will this work?
Thanks in advance,
-Scott

[Andrew ARONOFF]

< Did you accomplish this upgrade? >

Yes, but the embedded RAID controller in the Proliant ML110 G3 is limited to hard disks of 250 GB.

So I added a Promise FastTrak TX2300 to handle two 750 GB disks and the upgrade went smoothly.

I never found an intelligible step-by-step procedure. Here's what I did:

FOA, install the Promise with the small disks connected to the embedded controller (so the large disks will later be recognized on the Promise).

BUG: the shortcut to the Promise WebPAM app was corrupt and needed to be manually corrected.

After the Promise is installed, shut down, remove the old disks, disable the embedded RAID controller, partition one new disk on a suitable workstation, use Ghost to populate the partition(s), start up the new disk on the Promise in the server, enter the Promise BIOS and delete the JBOD state, connect the second new disk, re-enter the Promise BIOS and create the RAID1 array, disconnect the empty disk, start up Windows, shut down and reconnect the empty disk, restart Windows.

WebPAM can then be used to monitor the RAID1 replication, which otherwise occurs automatically.

HTH.