Drive Expansion

Hello Everyone,
I am currently running a Windows 2000 server on a Compaq ProLiant ML350. I need to increase the size of my storage drives in the RAID. We currently have a mirrored capicity of 130GB in logical drive D. I want to expand the size to 600GB. The hardware is available and compatible.
I don't know how to handle the extension of the existing drive. How do I make Windows increase D:\ to whatever Max size it can understand without destroying all of the informatoin on the drive? Compaq has a utility that will insure that the array controller will handle the hardware. I am looking for a software solution.
I did check into Norton partition magic. This program is not compatible for a server OS. The Symantec alternative is very expensive. Does anyone know of another solution? Also, does anoyone know the maximum size for a logical drive on Windows 2000 server sp4?

Thank you
Falcis

you could just set it up as a DFS instead of RAID. you would lose all redundency but it would probably be easier and it would appear as 1 large drive rather than smaller ones and it is a aoftware solution.

Could you give a bit more information on the hardware........like what drives and partitions you are proposing......

Also, is this RAID 5 we are talking about?

Also why run RAID in a partition?.............for it to be any good you need a drive :)

Sorry for all of the confusion, I just did not know how to correctly explain this. Let me try again.

I have six physical hard drives. 2 - 18gb drives making up the boot portion C:\ and 4 - 72.6gb making up drive D:\ Due to RAID 1 +0, the first two are mirrored and Windows recognizes them as a single 18gb drive, D:\ is recognized as a single 130 GB drive.

I have replaced the 4 - 72.6gb drives with 4 - 300gb drives. After mirroring the drive should be recognized as 600gb. When I go into disk management Windows can see the unused space available. I want to expand D:\ to include the unused space.

These drives show up as separate groups in my array configuration utility. One group of two and another of four. RAID is used to ensure redundancy and these are hot swap drives.

Falcis

Hi falcis

Please have a look at this and the link in it.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage...ed_golden.html

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D:\ Due to RAID 1 +0, the first two are mirrored and Windows recognizes them as a single 18gb drive, D:\ is recognized as a single 130 GB drive.

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I don't quite follow your configuration................ RAID 1 + 0?

If your 4 drives are RAID 0 then you are using striping, and would have no redundancy and no hot swap capability. If you are expecting 600Gb then it sounds as if you are trying to set up two RAID1 arrays?

With RAID5 and 4 x 300Gb drives you would get 900Gb and could afford to lose one drive.

18Gb and 72.6Gb drives, that sounds like SCSI to me? are you using a hardware or a software RAID controller?

I don't think that your D:\ is a "logical drive" it is a RAID array? which is physical?



:)

thanks nihil, I was confusing the hell out of my self trying to figure this out. lol. But I was thinking along the same lines as you but trying to fit it with what he is saying.

RAID 0+1 is actually quite common.. You use 2 drives as a stipeset (RAID0) then mirror (RAID1) that stripeset to the other 2 drives.. All done using a hardware RAID controller...

I wouldn't use it though.. I'm more inclined to use RAID1 for the OS/programs and a RAID5 for the data..

Probably the safest option to expand your drives is to backup the data.. Reconfigure the RAID and restore the backup.. Might take a while but it's a lot safer this way instead of using something like partition magic..

SirDice

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RAID 0+1 is actually quite common.. You use 2 drives as a stipeset (RAID0) then mirror (RAID1) that stripeset to the other 2 drives.. All done using a hardware RAID controller...

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I have never actually come across that..........1 + 0 yes. You mirror the OS/Applications and stripe the data drives? Not much good if you lose a data drive though as you have no redundancy :eek:

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I wouldn't use it though.. I'm more inclined to use RAID1 for the OS/programs and a RAID5 for the data..

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Yes, that has to be the most common configuration I have seen and is very popular over here. You can afford to lose one data drive and rebuild the array afterwards. You also get more space for your money.

I think that we need a little bit more information, as the OP did mention "hot swapping"?

:)

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You mirror the OS/Applications and stripe the data drives? Not much good if you lose a data drive though as you have no redundancy

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No.. you stripe and mirror the data drives... The OS is on a seperate mirror set. So you would need at least 6 drives.

A picture says more then a 1000 words ;)

AFAIK you're able to hotswap a defective drive. The replaced one will be rebuild using it's mirror.

Hah! Gotcha!

That is RAID 10.................................ah! is that what the OP meant? ("1 + 0") maybe I limited my thinking because a lot of stuff only supports 0,1 and 5? That is the economy end of the RAID market :D

Sure your OS/APPS are effectively RAID 1, then your data are RAID 1 and RAID 0.

In your scenario (RAID 10) I would say that you can hotswap the OS/APPS drives with no problems. The issue would be with the data drives?............you could hotswap the mirrored drives, but you would have to rebuild the striped part of the array?

When you say "6 drives" I am guessing that you are talking the data drive side of the array?

Like mirrored = 2 x 300 + 2 x 300 = 600 total, and the two striped drives are 2 x 300 = 600?

Very interesting!............I have never met anyone who would pay for that

:D

Actually RAID10 doesn't exist.. But in reality RAID1+0 is usually refered to as RAID10..
I love RAID.. I've seen some really weird configs... RAID10 spread across multiple controllers.. A nightmare to configure.. Mostly done for performance reasons in heavy duty I/O applications..

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The issue would be with the data drives?............you could hotswap the mirrored drives, but you would have to rebuild the striped part of the array?

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Sort of yes. You first create 1 stripeset then mirror that stripeset.. If one drive fails you can rebuild the faulty stripeset using it's mirror.. Heck.. you can have 2 faulty drives.. As long as they're in the same stripeset..

[RAID Contr1]-----[Disk1]----[Disk3]
[RAID Contr2]-----[Disk2]----[Disk4]

Disk1+2 in RAID0 and Disk3+4 are the striped mirror of Disk1+2..

Both disk 1 and 2 can die without problems or dataloss. Same with 3 and 4.. But if 1 and 4 dies.. it's restoring your backup time!

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When you say "6 drives" I am guessing that you are talking the data drive side of the array?

Like mirrored = 2 x 300 + 2 x 300 = 600 total, and the two striped drives are 2 x 300 = 600?

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2x300 in RAID1 for OS.. 4x300 in RAID10 (1+0) for data.. makes 6 in total..

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Very interesting!............I have never met anyone who would pay for that

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It is expensive indeed.. OTOH drives aren't that expensive anymore.. And some applications can really benefit from the increased I/O throughput (sticking in a bigger cpu and/or more ram is useless in some cases).. while still maintaining fault tolerance...

Thanks for all of the responses. I decided that the picture is worth a thousand words idea was pretty good so I have attached a jpg of the Compaq Array Configuration Utility GUI for you to view. It actually says that this is RAID 1 +0 which is why I listed it that way. If that is not normally the correct way I just didn't know.

As far as hardware goes these are SCSI drives and this is a Compaq 5312 RAID controller card.

I have already rebuilt the data on the drives. In this case, Compaq admin docs say to remove one drive and insert the new drive. The controller will rebuild the data on that drive just like when you are replacing a defective drive. Once a drive is finished you can go ahead and replace the next one in the array. The controller and ACU recognized the extra space after the rebuild and allowed me to include the space into the array. My problem is in getting Window to allow me to increase the size of D:\

The decision about what type of RAID to use was made before I got the job. This is not something I am going to be changing.

I will also be adding another attachment which is the image of my disk manager. I don't if that will help or not but it seems a good idea.

Falcis
I am such a newbie I don't even think I qualify as a newbie.

Here is the disk manager