Extend Logical Drive(RAID5) on Win 2K Server

[pkar75]

I have a RAID 5 array on a Compaq ML 530 with a 3200 SmartArray controller. I have 3 18 GB hard drives with one set as a spare. I am planning on adding two additional 18 GB drives to the array. I would like to expand the existing logical drive to utilize these disks. Compaq(HP) told me they do not recommend doing this on Win 2000 Server(the OS on my server) as I will loose all the data.

Microsoft says they do not recommend extending the logical drive ONLY if using dynamic disks. My disks are all set up as basic.

Has anyone extended their logical drives without problems on basic disks? What are the advantages/disadvantages of creating a new logical drive on the array as opposed to extending an existing logical drive?

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[richgill]

How are you going to extend the existing logical drive? (ie without wiping out data)

 

[pkar75]

Using the Compaq ACU, one can extend the logical drive that exists on the array. My question relates to if it is safe to do so with Win 2K and basic disks. I have heard this is a problem with dynamic disks but not with basic disks and would like to confirm.

Thanks in advance.

 

[GiaBetiu]

"Dynamic disk" are a Microsoft technology. The other low level application (that can resize or move partitions) will not work.

What I don't understand is the following: your RAID is a physical one. So, OS has nothing to do with that RAID. It will just see it as a volume.
Extending that RAID of course that should be supported by the ACU.
Anyway, such a disk operation has a high risk! Always you have to make a backup before! Gia Betiu
m.betiu@chello.nl
Computer Eng. CNE 4, CNE 5

 

[pkar75]

You are correct. My RAID is hardware based. However, Compaq/HP has a warning on their website -- as well as warnings given verbally by their techs -- about extending the existing logical drive on the RAID array using their Array Configuration Utility(ACU) on Windows 2000. They recommend simply creating a new logical drive on the array. I was wondering if the warning was only if Win 2K was setup using dynamic disks.

Thanks in advance.

 

[WillShakespeare]

That warning is regardless of dynamic and basic disks. WHomever mentioned the dynamic disks most likely misunderstood what you were planning to do. The only safe way to do what you want is to backup your partition(s) first. Best bet is to boot to an image manager such as Ghost or even cheaper (free for 30 days) and IMHO better, particularly for NTFS is BOOTITNG from terabyte.
Then simply break and recreate the RAID with the new disks, and then boot to your image software and put the image back on the new RAID array. Both programs support burning the image to CD, tape, or across network, if I remember correctly, so you shouldn't need to have extra space for the image on the hard disks you have.
I'm sure there may be other solutions, but as far as I know the above is your best bet.

Will

 

[GiaBetiu]

Sorry Will!
Do not try to use an image manager!!! It will not work.
After you will put back your image, Windows 2k Server will hung!
I'd like also to know why. Gia Betiu
m.betiu@chello.nl
Computer Eng. CNE 4, CNE 5

 

[WillShakespeare]

Interesting... I have done this before with W2K Server, and it worked fine. What image manager did you use?

Will

 

[GiaBetiu]

Both well known ones Will!
(Ghost and DriveImage)

The behaviour?
It is cycling during logon. Gia Betiu
m.betiu@chello.nl
Computer Eng. CNE 4, CNE 5

 

[WillShakespeare]

If you have a test machine, try out BootITNG... I only mentioned Ghost, etc., because they are well known, and I assumed they would be able to cope with such a thing, seeing as they are not cheap. But I used BootITNG. GiaBetiu's post would (does!) worry me, however, which is why I suggest a test first.
Obviously you should be able to Backup and restore using your current Backup software, but I have less confidence in either BackupExec, or ArcServe, the two I know most. The process of restore is kind of fidly when restoring system information... But in this case, if the test server image doesn't work, it may be your only hope...

Will

 

[Skretting]

One question, do you have one or more logical drives on your server?

Windows 2000 does not support adding more space to the system volume (even if you upgrade to dynamic) but like the Compaq technicians said it will work fine to make a new array and add the new space to the existing drives/volumes (except the system/boot volume) this way.

 

[richgill]

WillS - when you use BootITNG to restore the image, are the partition sizes the same as the original? (ie before increasing the disk space) And then you convert D: drive (or whatever) to Dynamic Disk and resize that way? Or is BootITNG able to resize the partition when restoring it?

GiaBetiu - Out of interest, did you use the latest versions of both software packages? They both claim to be able to image W2K & XP!

 

[GiaBetiu]

Richgill, i suppose that powerquest and symantec have a differnt product for server version. The problem appear just in case that you are trying to save / restore a partition with WIn2k server on it. Gia Betiu
m.betiu@chello.nl
Computer Eng. CNE 4, CNE 5, soon MCSE2k

 

[WillShakespeare]

What I did:

I had a W2K server running using basic disks on a single 20Gb hard drive. Because I use multimedia, and huge files (some 500Mb each), this space soon was filling up. So I bought two new 80Gb Drives.
I had a second 13Gb drive, which I installed first, and after cleaning up the W2K installation down to about 15Gb, I used BootITNG to image the whole partition to the second 13Gb Drive.
I then installed the two 80Gb drives, with IDE RAID, and used RAID 1 (I think... but essentially Mirrored the two).
I then pushed the image using BootITNG onto the new "disk" (i.e. RAID Volume), which created a partition the same size.
I booted up to make sure everything was working, and did some general Norton checks. There seemed no difference.
I then went back into BootITNG, and resized the partition to 25Gb, and created a new partition for data, with the rest of the disk. (Having two partitions was probably better originally, but this machine was originally just a training machine for myself, and I just carried on using it...).
This worked fine, and is still working. However, I was carefukl to back up everything just in case. There was one time I used BootITNG to resize a system NTFS partition, and it didn't work. It came up with an error saying it couldn't do the requested action, but when I booted up the system was fine, so I didn't actually lose anything... I ended up backing up data in that instance, and built a new system utilising new sized disks. But this was using a version of BootITNG that while was useful in most cases was about two years old (from present), and did not support half of what the current version does... (I think it was 1.00, or 1.02, or something)
I haven't had a lot of experience with Dynamic disks, so I can't really say a lot about them.
There other thing Terabyte have is Image for Windows... though you should be able to do everything you need with BootITNG, you might look at taking a snapshot of your partition with this program first, as a solid backup.
Also, while I sincerely hope all goes well, whichever route you take is your decision, and I really hope you create a small test W2K server, first, with some cheap disks, and follow the steps you plan to do with your main server. If all goes well, just perform the same steps on the main machine.

Good Luck,

Will

 

[WillShakespeare]

As an aside... there may be issues with the BootITNG software being able to see the ACU volume, as it uses it's own OS... however, the software supports a lot of different hardware and files systems, so you should be okay... make sure from the documentation.

Will