How can I add more disks to my raid5 config on a 2900

[johnny99]

Hi

I have got an Dell 2900 that by mistake was shipped from Dell with only 3 HD's and not the 8 that was on the config sheet we send to Dell.

Since we have just landed in NYC to install the server and need to have it up-and-running by monday we have no chance to get the disk's (even trying to fly them in from our main office i Denmark)

But we can get the system up on the 3 drives we got using raid 5, but the can we later extend the raid5 config to include all 8 drives? (7 for raid 5 + 1 hotspare)

I have don't this a lot of times on Compaq servers more then 6 years ago, but I can't find any clue in the bios on the PERC5/i

I hope someone can tell me how this can be done on a Dell server

/johnny

 

[unguenstig]

sorry no chance with this controller! - by the way it´s not supported...
as alternative you can install another raid5 later with the other HD´s to create another logical drive
you can add the two logical drives to one in the OS if you need to have one partition - the problem is you will "lost" one more HD for the 2nd raid

 

[NickFerrar]

This should be fully supported. Best bet is to install OpenManage Server Administrator and use the Storage part of that. I haven't actually done this on a 2900 but have on 26xx and 28xx servers. The only issue I've had in the past is I often needed to update the PERC firmware before it would see new disks as available to be added to the existing RAID set, on a 2900 though I imagine even the oldest firmware revision would be fine.

Assuming you set the system partition now to be the size you want it it will be trivial to expand other partitions (using MS's diskpart) later once the new disks are available in the RAID volume.

 

[58sniper]

Curious as to why you'd want the OS AND the data partitions to be part of the same array? Not the best solution for performance.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
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[johnny99]

The servers only has to handle 10-20 users so what I want is just the most simple and flexible way to handle the total diskspace. Especially so that I don't have to travel to NYC just to change the diskconfig.

Performance isn't a real issue on the diskside.

/johnny

 

[technome]

Johnny....
For a simple means of expanding an array, look into Acronis
there is an evaluation download.

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/

For years I would partition a single raid 5 into two partitions, one for the OS and the greater part for the data and programs due to cost; raid 5 was safer due to smaller disk sizes. Now I would not consider this... I use 2 relatively small disks mirrored for the OS and programs in raid 1, and a larger set of disks for the data raid.

This is on raid 6 but in reference to raid 5

http://www.intel.com/technology/magazine/computing/RAID-6-0505.htm

........................................
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[johnny99]

RAID6 is great.
Our old disksystem had RAID6 (as the only option)
RAID6 has been around for many many years, but only from a selected few vendors.

Our current disksystems are from Engenio and I hope they will support RAID6 soon.

Thanks for your feedback

/johnny

 

[technome]

The point was not raid 6, as there are more write delays than raid 5, but the increased dangers of raid 5 due to larger capacity disks. Would be nice if the coprocessors on hardware raids increased in speed so much much, the delays were a none-issue; raid 5 is no longer anywhere near as safe as with the puny disks of years past. Now with all my clients, with large arrays,I need to run patrol reads and consistency checks on a regular basis with raid 5, and it still scares me. I have an extremely low disk and array loss but with Active Directory FSMOs and SQL, any loss hurts.

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm