Netraid Array Expansion taking very long time

[SUPPORT]

I have a DL380 G3 with a Netraid 5i controller and am expanding the array, it had 5 72Gb disks in it and we are adding a 6th one, only one logical drive is configured in our array. We started the expansion process in the ACU software about 72 hours ago and it is still going. The expansion priority is set to high and there is about 260Gb of data on this server. Since this is the first time we have expanded any of the arrays on our servers we weren't sure how long it would take. But I'm starting to get concerned as there is no progress indicator I can look at to see how much longer we have, performance on the server is fine as users continue to access the server. For the first 24 hours expansion was running on Sunday so no one accessed the system and we expected this would be done sooner. How long has expansion taken for others in the past? Thanks for any insight on this.

Here are the status messages we get in ACU:

# 777 The current array controller is performing capacity expansion, extension, or migration on array A.

Additional expansions, extensions, and migrations are not allowed on this controller until this process is complete. Also, configuration changes to any other array that is waiting for expansion or rebuild are not possible until this process completes. If unused space exists, additional logical drives can be created. Otherwise, most configuration changes are not allowed until this process is complete.

# 785 Background parity initialization is currently queued or in progress on logical drive 1 ( RAID 5 in array A). If background parity initialization is queued, it will start when I/O is performed on the drive. When background parity initialization completes, the performance of the logical drive will improve.

[CA1317752]

Hi Brian

We are running through the same expansion process with a similar size of data. I'm curious to find out if the process completed as we have been running this now for 48 hours (over the weekend) and itâ s only completed about 20% (checking via selecting more information from the logical drive view). I'm more concerned about the impact on users - you say that server performance was not an issue? Similarly for that length of time did you continue to backup the data on the logical drive.

Cheers

Paul

[Sean_186]

Hi,
I have encountered exactly the same scenario. I am adding one 146gig drive to a 3 drive RAID 5 array. This error is appearing 40 hours after the array was expanded.

Would be obliged if I could know how long the expansion will take to complete.

[CA1317752]

My array expansion took 2 weeks with priority set to low.

Paul

[CA1335992]

As a rough guide I am in the process of adding a 4th 72GB disk to a Raid 5 array with 122GB of data on it. Expansion has been running for 8 hours so far and is 68% done at medium priority.

As someone said above, if you select Logical Drive View in ACU, click on the logical drive you are expanding and then click More Information it will tell you the % completion.

Took me a while to find that too!

[CA1323761]

I have DL380G4 with 5 X 72.8GB HDD and adding the 6th. Data was around 250GB.
Priority was set to high and it's running at an estimated 2% for an hour. This means something like 50 hours to get it done.
Doing it on a Sunday, thus no user is accessing it.

Is there any faster way of doing an arrray extension, like running it from the hardware level or etc

[Sean_186]

Hi,
This will take two weeks minimum. We added a fourth 144 gig drive to a RAID5 array and it took just over two weeks.

[Sean_186]

Hi,
One of the four drives now needs to be replaced. I need to decide how long the rebuild will take if the priority is set to high.

Is anyone aware of a method to calculate how long an array expansion takes? The RAID5 Array consists of 4 144 gig drives.

[Michael Orozco]

Thank you all for the tip on the % view. This is the stupist process i have ever had to do. The HP support tech had me set on low for 18 hours before i did some research and set it to High. I am very disapointed with HP on this process, but i am 34% done and will be turning of every possiable service tonight.

Thanks again

[Tom123]

Background parity initialization is currently queued or in progress on logical drive 1 ( RAID 5 in array A). If background parity initialization is queued, it will start when I/O is performed on the drive. When background parity initialization completes, the performance of the logical drive will improve.

The above message is being displayed having expanded the array which took about a week 4 days to complete.
My question is - Is it safe to extended the volume via disk manager,with the above condition in place.The volume I wish to extend is set as "Dynamic" so the extra disk space will be available immediately.
Just want to be sure.

[Bas Woudsma]

I have a test server Windows 2003 advanced server
I have added two 72 gig drives to a 6 disk array raid5. Only 1 gig of data on there just to test. It took more then 9 hours to complete the expantion. (I left to let it run during the night so was unable to time exactly) So somewhere between 9 and 24 hours to expand. Then while the background parity initialization was still running I used diskpart.exe to add the space to the array (remember to do the expantion twice in ACU to really add the space to the logical volume. Second time is instant) I have basic disks configured. So using diskpart.exe while parity initialization is running is working on my server. G3 server DL380 with 5300 controller card and MSA50 attached.