Additional storage on AX-100 not recognized in Windows Server 2003

Doug,
This prior thread may be helpful;
http://forums.emc.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=59538
But advise back if still having difficulty.

Regardsm,
DGM

Hello Doug,

You may find the Microsoft knowledgebase solution on diskpart helpful:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325590

Also, when you "Manage" your server via disk manager, attempt to rescan disks and refresh. That often times discovers any expanded disks for me. Are you using PowerPath to manage your AX-100 virtual disks?

I did expand the disk pool in Navisphere (and the virtual disk along with it) to 2.173 TB. Checking the Disk in Disk Management: Properties -> Volumes, says that the Partition Style is Master Boot Record. Would this be the cause of it not recognizing the additional space, since it's more than 2TB? Wouldn't it just limit me to 2TB total (and losing the 173 extra gigs)?

I'm still at a loss as to why it doesn't even show up in Windows...
in Navisphere, I expanded the disk pool, and expanded the virtual disk to 2173 gigs. Why does Windows not see the unallocated new space, why doesn't it let me Diskpart->Extend to the space that was expanded in Navisphere?

Totally stumped... and thanks for any help!

Hi Bertog,

1. It's not a boot or system volume, but under the disk's Properties->Volumes tab, it does say the Partition style is 'Master Boot Record'.
I have not received the errors indicated ('valid for extending').

2. I checked that and the page file is located on the local HDD.

3. I am not sure how it was originally created. I just know that the Layout is Simple, and the Type is Dynamic. But that MS article also states that the restriction was removed in Server 2003, which is what I am running.

It is a main production server that needs to be up 24/7. However, I was able to restart it, just to be on the safe side, and nothing changed. But I can't guarantee I'll be able to restart the server again any time soon.

Thank you for your help!

While the error message is not consistent with what you report, the KB solution indicates:
1. Only the extension of data volumes is supported. System or boot volumes may be blocked from being extended, and you may receive the following error:
Diskpart failed to extend the volume. Please make sure the volume is valid for extending

2. You cannot extend the partition if the system page file is located on the partition. Move the page file to a partition that you do not wish to extend.

3. In Microsoft Windows XP and in Microsoft Windows 2000, you cannot use Diskpart.exe to extend a simple volume on a Dynamic disk that was originally created on a Basic disk. You can extend only simple volumes that were created after the disk was upgraded to Dynamic disk. If you try to extend a simple volume on a Dynamic disk that was originally created on a Basic disk, you receive the following error message. This restriction was removed in Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

Are any of those restrictions in play here?
If this is not a mission critical server, you can try rebooting it to see if it recognizes the additional space. If you can not, or would prefer not to do that, it may be best to contact Microsoft Support to understand why the system is not recognizing the additional space.

Hi!

Rescanning and refreshing via Disk Manager does not help.

I still can't get diskpart to work. The error message doesn't make sense - on the server, I've got:
EMC_Array (F:) Simple Dynamic NTFS Healthy 652.00 GB capacity 336.24 GB free space

Microsoft DiskPart version 5.2.3790.3959
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: LABTRICITY

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 F EMC_Array_1 NTFS Simple 652 GB Healthy
Volume 1 C OS NTFS Partition 12 GB Healthy System
Volume 2 D DATAPART1 NTFS Partition 285 GB Healthy
Volume 3 E CD-ROM 0 B Healthy

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 297 GB 8001 KB
Disk 1 Online 652 GB 637 KB *

DISKPART> select volume 0

Volume 0 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> extend

The specified disks have less than 1 MB of free space available.
Please specify a disk with at least 1 MB available free space.

Isn't there a 2TB limit on Windows MRB disks and you need to go to GPT disks to go beyond 2TB?

glen

Wouldn't that mean that Windows would only recognize 2 TB, and therefore I'd still have access to the unallocated space up to and including the 2 TB?

Is it possible to reduce space using Navisphere Express - could I bring down the disk array to less than 2 TB? Would it then show up in Windows Server 03 and would diskpart then recognize that it's there?

If not, is it easy to convert to GPT?

I'm still at a loss on this one. I've got >2 TB worth of disks and I'm only able to use 600 GB, which really sucks.

Thanks for any help.

Please see EMC Knowledge base article emc117791. Windows < 2003 SP1 can not recognize LUNs > 2 TB, which could be the case here. There seems to be some ambiguity as to whether Windows will recognize only up 2 TB, or nothing at all. From what I understand, it is nothing at all unless GPT is used.

There is no way to "shrink" a virtual Disk in Navi Express. You can create a new Virtual disk of the desired space and use a host based utility to migrate the data to the new Virtual disk, then destroy the old Virtual Disk and recreate it in the size you want. This will only work if you have extra capacity.

For how to convert to GPT, see MS knowledge base:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738416.aspx

It is not an online operation as far as I can tell.

That looks like a reasonable course of action. If you have any doubts, I invite you to open ticket with technical support so they can check for any caveats to the procedure or other "gotchas."

My apologies, I should have mentioned that this is on a Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2. But I see from that article that the only reason SP1 and higher supports >2tb is because it supports GPT.

So my reasoning is this:

1. Take down all software that is connecting to data on AX100.
2. Back up AX100.
3. Destroy the virtual disk.
4. Convert disk to GPT.
5. Create virtual disk to use all 2.x terabytes of space on AX100.
6. Copy backed-up data back to AX100.

Let me know if you think this sounds correct, as I'd have to do it on a Sunday at 3 AM, during the lowest period of usage. Thanks!