dell poweredge 2600 creating new raid 5

[efac]

I currently have 3 36gb drives on a Raid 5. I need more storage for our exchange database. I purchased 3 more 76GB drives and want to create a 2nd Raid 5 for these 3 drives. My question is I get mixed responses from Dell in putting the drives while the server is running. Some suggest having the server off and adding the 3 drives. What's the issue if I put in the 3 new drives and create the 2nd Raid 5 via array manager?

Since it's my mail, I don't want to take it down if I don't have to.

 

[NickFerrar]

I've added drives to 2600 RAID-5 array with the system up so I don't see creating a new array would cause any more issues. I guess the safest way is to shut it down first but it supports hot-plugging so you shouldn't really worry.

 

[kevotron]

I am in a similiar situation as yourself and have also received mixed messages on this subject. They ARE supposed to be hot-swappable, but man I gotta tell you...if it's your job on the line and you pop one of those in w/ the server running during work hours and it locks up or blue screens. Make sure you have a viable disaster recovery plan. I have seen so many things that are "supposed work" go south (which may just speak to my general incompetence), and as such I would recommend ALWAYS err on the side of caution. That's why I am waiting for a weekend to plug these babies in and set up RAID 5. Call me anal.

 

[efac]

I put them in live without issues. Did one at a time, rescanned in Array Manager to see the new drives. Created the virtual disk in the evening and let it build the raid 5. Took about 4 - 5 hours.

I don't why they can't simply all say the same thing but that's the point of hot swap drives. You should be able to do this stuff without taking down the box or else it defeats the purpose. I had the box imaged with Live State anyway (just in case), + backups.