How to increase the size of a disk mirror

[Frankenherder]

OK, I haev a Poweredge 1740 with a PEAC 4/di controller card.

There are 2 36 GB hard drives forming a 36 GB array.
I have replaced each of the 36 GB disks with a 74 GB disk one at a time and rebuilt the array.

How can i claim the extra harddrive space? Do I need to blow away my array? Can I just add to it? And once that is done, how can I add all of that extra space to our D drive?

Thanks
Matt

 

[LawnBoy]

Your array is fine, stop thinking about it and treat the disk set as if it were a single disk. You now have a 36 GB partition on a 74 GB disk. You need to expand the partition to fill the rest of the drive using Partiton Magic or other partition resizing software.

I think windows diskpart will do this as long as it's not the C: drive.

Make sure you have good backups first!


"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Frankenherder]

I have a raid controler card, this is not a software raid. Only 36 GB is getting presented to the OS. I cannot expand what the OS cannot see.

Any pther ideas?

Matt

 

[LawnBoy]

I suggest you research what a disk partition is.


"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Frankenherder]

DUDE, MY CONTROLER IS SHOWING 74 GB DRIVES AS 36GB IN THE ARRAY. I CANNOT EXPAND WHAT IS NOT SEEN BY THE OS.

IF YOU WANT TO HELP, HELP, YOUR LITTLE COMMENTS ARE NOT APPRECIATED.
MATT

 

[LawnBoy]

You can expand what is not seen by the OS, and if you'd do a little research you'd know that. Dude.


"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[TheLad]

You would probably have to expand the array using Server Administrator Being a HP man myself, I don't know the exact procedure but from what I have read on the Dell forum, you have to

expand the Storage section and expand the RAID card. You then click on Virtual Disks. Pull down the available tasks on the virtual disk you wish to expand and choose Reconfigure. Click on Execute. Follow the prompts to add the extra space to the array

The procedure for yourself may be different but hopefully this will get you on the right track.

Once the array has expanded to the full 74 (or 72Gb), providing you are using a Windows OS you could use Diskpart to extend your D: across to the extra diskspace.

As usual, ensure you have a decent backup prior to starting just incase.

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"Insert funny comment in here!"
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[LawnBoy]

I've done this on PERC4s without fiddling with the array configuration in any way. Just extend the partition to include the extra space.


"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Frankenherder]

Just extend the partition???? There is no unallocated space being shown under disk management and the Array controller is showing 100% of the disk used at 36 GB.

Look at these pictures, how can you extend it when the RAID controler is only showing the OS 36 GB?

 

[Frankenherder]

OK, I am not using dynamic disks, that is why the extend is not an option....
Matt

 

[LawnBoy]

I've never used Array Manager since I mostly run Netware and linux on the servers. I've always just used the BIOS routines when I need them.

If the controller really isn't showing the space I would bet that you'll have to wipe the current container and recreate it as a larger one. Meaning a total reload of the OS.

You can image the server, then recreate the array container, restore the image, and then extend the partition.

"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[technome]

In raid 5, you can add a disk to an array, then once in Windows you can extend the unallocated space into the original volume with extpart, diskpart or third party partition managers.

In raid 1 you can not do that, at least with common raid adapters. By replacing the disks with larger disks, you end up with the same size volume as the original, not expandable....you can create another raid 1 volume from the remaining unused space from within the raid card bios setup (dependent on the raid card), which will be seen in Windows as another volume, unallocated until winformated.
You can not combine the two volumes at the raid level, I believe you could at the OS level, but that would involve Dynamic disks and spanning, NO SANE IT person would do it.

The best way of creating a larger raid 1 with two new disks is to add the new disks in the backplane, create another raid 1 from the new disks...then clone the original raid 1 to the new raid 1, telling the cloning program to expand the original volume size to the full size of the new raid 1.

Your options now..
You should be able to reverse clone to the original old raid 1 disk array, make sure it boots and that everything is OK. Setup the new disks as a raid 1, then clone from the old raid 1 to the new one raid 1, as described above.

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

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

 

[TheLad]

Frankenherder - you have to take a two stage approach to this. The OS will not see the extra diskspace until the server has been configured to show it. You have to perform procedures mentioned by myself and others to allow the OS to see the extra diskspace. Then and only then will it show in Disk Management as unallocated diskspace. That is why we are all talking about extending the array/partition first.

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"Insert funny comment in here!"
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[Frankenherder]

Thanks guys that is what I figured...

I ended up craeating another volume with the extra space as Technome mentioned. That is still 10 GB bigger then I had. I have since moved the PRIV1 Exchange DB to it and it is workingfine.

This has bought me some time but I still want to only have 2 partitions and not 3 so I will inevitably image the server and go with 2 partitions.

Thanks for everyone's input.
Regards,
Matt

 

[burtsbees]

What I normally do is use a disc stretcher, but make sure it's got the rubber magnet so you don't destroy the hard drive.

Burt

 

[Knackster]

I think I have one of those, it sits next to my 2x4 stretcher..



Chris
IT Manager
Houston, Texas

 

[burtsbees]

Lol...

Burt