HP ProLiant 380 - out of disk space

[dmbfanatpsu]

Question - I have an HP ProLiant 380 with 5 hard drives. 3 are 72.8G and the other 2 are 36.4G and they are all Ultra320 SCSI. The server shows two logical drives - C: and D: and C: is RAID 1+0 and D: is RAID 5. The server is out of disk space for D: and I noticed that we have 1 empty slot available for another hard drive. Can I simply put in another hard drive and add it to the D: drive to create more space?

 

[wahnula]

Can I simply put in another hard drive and add it to the D: drive to create more space?

NO!

Ok, well, maybe, but highly unlikely. That slot is probably for a hot spare. It's also highly unlikely you have RAID 1+0 and RAID 5 with only five drives, that setup would take seven drives minimum. More likely it's a RAID 1 and RAID 5 setup.

There are two ways to increase the capacity of RAID 5 arrays that I'm aware of. First, take a full backup and check it.

One method involves replacing the 3 member drives with larger drives one at a time, allowing full RAID rebuild between changes. You may or may not expand the RAID array just by doing this. I would contact Dell about how their controller works. My RAID 5 controller is a 3Ware and they will write me a new script to expand the array. You can also try expanding the partition if needed with an app like Partition Magic. Once the array is built, it is seen as a single drive.

The other method involves getting an IDE drive (or SATA if you have a spare port, but almost all servers have an unused IDE channel) that is at least 160GB. Using Ghost or Acronis, clone the array to the single drive, then remove the array drives, re-name the IDE drive to D:, and see if it works. If it does, test it thoroughly, then replace the 3 RAID 5 drives with new, larger ones, build the array in RAID BIOS, then clone the single drive back to the array.

I've done the second method a few times using Ghost 2003 and it worked fine. Best of luck.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[wahnula]

Well, I just learned another method, involving an HP Array Configuration Utility in thread490-1484960

This might help you...

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[TheLad]

Yes, using the ACU through the OS or from the SmartStart CD you can add the disk to the existing RAID5 array and restripe (expand) the array to include the new disk.

A couple of things to note are:

a) I assume the two 36.4Gb drives are your RAID1 (C?

b) You are adding a 76.4Gb disk?

c) Take a backup just in case

d) When you kick it off, it could take a few hours to restripe

e) You will still need to stretch your D: (using DISKPART) so the extra space can be seen by the OS

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