Expanding NetWare volumes

[sg4me]

Hi there, I am rather new to NetWare and was wondering how to expand volumes. I have already created the second logical drive on my RAID 5 array (was 3x9.1GB now 3x18.2GB drives) In case it helps, server is a Compaq PL3000.

Thanks for your help
Ben

 

[Provogeek]

This is easy, just go into NWCONFIG and create a NetWare Partition on the new logical drive. Then when you create a volume you be prompted to make this a new volume or part of another volume. Choose the later and then pick the volume you want to span.


FYI: Spanning volumes is not recomended for a lasting solution, it normally is used for a quick fix to space issues. Later on a storage upgrade gets done. The reason for this is because if just one of those logical drive fails, your volumes are hosed. Never seen someone do it on a RAID, so you may be safe to do so with out issue.

What you could do is install the new RAID drives into your current logical drive and just span on the RAID. Your RAID manufacture should have instructions on how to do this (if it's a Compaq SMART card, it basicly does it on it's own). Brent Schmidt CNE,Network +
Senior Network Engineer

http://www.kiscc.com

 

[bamba]

You won't be able to just add a new drive to a raid system and have the data striped across the new drive without a full backup/reconfigure/restore cycle.

( Look on it as real opportunity to test your disaster recovery procedures !)

There is a product by powerquest called Server Magic for Netware which can make things easier, allowing you to take a image of the server state for restore.
Then when you restore accros the new logical disk you can resize the volumes and move/merge extents.

 

[TheLad]

Incorrect. I have added disks to existing RAID arrays before, created the new disk as an additional logical volume using CPQONLIN.NLM as they are Compaq hardware), and the data has striped across just fine without any outage required to the server. NetWare can see the new disk defined as a seperate logical volume and you can add the disk space to your volumes as and when you want.

As Brent has said, spanning volumes over multiple logical volumes is not the best, but I've never seen any adverse effects on the many servers I have had to do this on. -----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
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[TheLad]

In my typing haste, I actually got the order wrong there. For Compaq servers, the procedure goes something like this (no outage required):

1) Put the disk into the server. Server recognises a disk has been added.

2) Use CPQONLIN.NLM to add the new disk to the existing array. This automatically creates a new logical volume and the disks start to restripe

3) Create NetWare partition on new logical volume

4) Add diskspace as and when

To upgrade disks from (say) 9.1Gb to 18.2Gb, you can just swap one out at a time, let the system restripe onto the new disk, then when all have been swapped, add the new logical volume, add the new NetWare partition, then add diskspace as and when. -----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
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