performance impact while adding new drives to array

[uthorns]

I've heard that there is a performance impact on a server while new drives are being added to an array. Can anyone give me some idea of how big an impact this is? I guess it depends on priority but are there any general ideas? At lowest priority will it take longer but not impact too much, at highest is it a much faster build but a useless server? Just trying to get a general idea. Thanks.

It's a file server, about 40 users, mainly used for autocad files. Just wondering if people will be able to get any work done on Monday because I don't it will finish the array over the weekend.

 

[elmurado]

Depends. How big are the drives/array what kind of controller do you have? What kind of drives are they? What kind of ops are the users doing?

Is this rebuilding a failed drive or adding a new one to extend?

I have a server for instance that can take 3+ hours to rebuild a 36G drive if it has been swapped out. It's set to low and has a 641 controller with 128MB BBWC.
Server only has 512Mb RAm and a 3Gb proc.

It will impact the performance but I don't think that it would be too bad as it's afile server though I know some autocad files can get big.

 

[uthorns]

It's a new drive, I'm extending the 4 drive 400gb array with a U320 300gb scsi on a HP Smart Array 642 controller. I actually have 3 300gb drives but thought I might just do one per weekend as I didn't want to have the extend running all week. The server has dual Xeon 3ghz with 4gb ram.