Expanding a RAID partition on a NAS 2000s (Win2K3)

[Sylvain Côté]

Hi, we have an old HP NAS 2000s on wich is connected a Storageworks library and on which all the slots are occupied and 2 raid arrays are defined.

I "upgraded" one raid array with new disks by "hot swapping" the HDs (from 148Gb to 300Gb HDs) one at the time until the whole array gets rebuilt with theses 300Gb hds.

The OS is Win2K3 Std SP2

IS there a way to expand this partition without having to redefine it from scratch (i.e. dynamically)?

I have a backup of course, but doing a restore would create a downtime too long for us...

otherwise, I'd need an external device to swap the files, but this old server only has USB 1.1 ports, so I cannot use that temporary storage... (even a usb 2.0 device would be too slow)

I dont want to copy everything to another server (because I'd have to redo all the shares, security etc...) thru the network, which is quite limited to 1000 mb.

optionnaly, I could connect another SCSI storage device...
what would you recommend as a temporary external scsi device for swapping the partitions ?
I have a Adaptec 29320A (Ultra320 SCSI) card on that server that could be used to connect somthing in the meantime (I need to purchase something not too expensive, because this is a temporary measure... we should upgrade this server next year...

Thank you for your help/input

Syl20

[peyrache · Accepted solution]

diskpart tools should you help you to extand partition
let me know if you need more help
JYP

[Sylvain Côté]

Thanks, I do not know DISKPART, but I can see it's a MS utility...
but Should I need to expand the RAID partition (managed by the hp Array Configuration Utility) before expanding the logical drives ?

Anyways, before doing that, I'd need to copy the partition on another external device in case of problem...
I am now considering the purchase of a SATA controller thet could host a 1 TB disk, so if I have to redo the partitions from zero, it would be faster to copy from...
an ext scsi device would be too expensive to buy (they make 300GB max in SCSI, and these disks are more that 500$ each!.. quite expensive for a temporary measure...)

[peyrache]

checked some controller can do that
but on 2000S we can't expand array till
destroy it and rebuild a new one
JYP

[Sylvain Côté]

Thanks, so I'd need to setup a temp storage while reconfiguring the RAID etc...

I found thet spec page for this system... http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11793_ca/11793_ca.HTML

is there a SATA controller integrated on that server mobo (I did not open the case yet)?
or is it just for the (optional) MSA 20 disk enclosure mentionned in the above specs?

I also found that the PCI on that server are 64-bit PCI-X slots...
so I'd have to find a SATA controller that can do RAID 0 with two external 1 TB Sata HDs... any recommendations for a SATA controller ??

My goal now is to move the data from the partition i want to expand, to the ext sata drives... while I expand a volume.

thanks for any input !

Sylvain

[peyrache]

do you have any extra spare slot in msa20 in order to create a temporary read,
there are not sata controlleur on 2000S
also you can add extra storage disk in
internal controlleur itself (bundle on motherboard).
JYP

[Sylvain Côté]

Bonjour,
I do not have the MSA20, and all the slots on the server and on the external enclosure are occupied... this is why I am looking for an external SATA storage for backup and restore purposes.

I envisage to get a SATA controller that I'll plug into the free PCI slot I have on that server... This SATA controller could be capable of doing a RAID 0, so 2 disks of 1TB in mirror should be sufficient in the meantime I reconfigure the SCSI raid volumes... and in case of problem, the SATA disks could hosts the files/shares of the users in the meantime the problem is resolved...
I dont want that server to be down for too long period...

Sylvain

[peyrache]

2000S is based on Proliant DL380G3 hardware
so you can add any SATA/SCSI controller
supported on this platform also MSA20 is not longer sold you need to move to msa60 or msa70
JYP


http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11473_div/11473_div.HTML

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13203_div/13203_div.pdf
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12627_div/12627_div.html