Raid 5 Extend

[ikendo]

Hi guys,

I got the Proliant external RAID 5 tower. I have RAID 5 configured, each drive consist 9.1gig drives. Now I just put 2 more 9.1gig drives in it, so now I have total of 7 drives in the raid tower. How come I only see 45.4 gig? where is my other 18gig go? So how do I extend it? so I can see those 2 drives(18gig)??

thanks
ken

 

[terry712]

os would be handy

you need to use compaqs array utility

on netware - run cpqonlin and you can expand array -

on ms stuff - start program - compaq something - array config and then expand array (you will probably need to reboot to take effect - it's a ms thing) -

on linux - beleive its cpqonlin as well but not sure

 

[ikendo]

Hi,

The OS is Win 2000 w/sp4. I have the CAU and I try the extend option and it didnt work. This what I see, on the Compaq Array Utility, I see 2 logical drives. This happened when I added the 7th drive in it. Isnt this supposed be 1 logical only instead of 2.

If I use the MS Storage/Mangement and I creat array from there, wouldnt this hoggin up the cpu resouce? This consider a software raid no? The way I set it up is a hardware raid by the way, Im using the SmartStart cdrom that came with it.

thanks again.

 

[terry712]

whatever you do DONT use ms stuff for disk admin
you must use the compaq utils first
logical depends on setup
in the acu do you see all the physical disks?

it sounds like instead of expanding you may have created another array

verify that this is the case and if so then you can delete the new array
once deleted then you can expand

but verify - verify and just in case verify again

 

[Petje]

What you can do is expand your array to include the 2 new drives.
Then use a 3th party partition tool like partition magic to extend the partition over the newly created disk space



Petje
A+, MCP, MCSE on NT4.0 and windows 2000 and Windows server 2003 and CCEA

 

[ikendo]

Thanks guys,

I redo the entire array, i used the custom setup on ACU screen. So added all 7 drives, instead just 5.

 

[kimovski]

I need to expand disks to my current 6x146Gb disk RAID5 array.

What happends with the current data on the array when expanding it with Compaq array utlilty on w2k? Can I do this online, and how long time would it take? W2K SP4.

// kimmo

 

[jjeffm]

Nothing bad will happen, you can even use the drives while they're rebuilding..It's going to take awhile to add drives of that size..Don't be impatient.It took 3hrs just to add two 9.i gigs to mine.. Just stick in a new one add use the array utility to add it to the array. COOL STUFF that array manager...

 

[xmsre]

When you expanded the array, the current logical drive was spread across all the spindles. You must now take the extra space and create a second logical drive to present to the OS. You cannot change the size of a logical drive once created. You can't simply use a 3rd party tool to extend it. The "logical drive" is a result of the RAID controller's virtualization layer, and is not the same thing as a logical drive in windows. It is presented to the OS as a physical drive. To better understand it, see:

ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/supportinformation/techpubs/user_reference_guides/295469-002.pdf

Page D-17

Rescan and W2K will pick up the new [virtual] physical drive.