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Add HDD's to existing Perch H310 virtual drive.
We have a PowerEdge T320 Server running Windows Server 2008 SP2. It Is used for running a couple of applications, but mainly is for backups of our main server SAN. These are Shadowprotect full images and incrementals.
It has a PERC H 310 adapter with 8 drive slots.
Slots 0-1 are for 2 560GbSAS disks, (Virtual Disk 0)in Raid 1.
Slots 4-7 are for 4 4TbSATA disks (Backup) in Raid 5.
Due to a lack of space on both our main server and the Backup drive, we have commenced the process of getting a major upgrade with a new SAN for our main data, and the existing SAN to replace the current Backup drive. This is taking some time, however, and in the meantime we need more space.
The existing 4 disks in slots 4-7 were Western digital product # WDC WD40EFRX-68WT0N0 each 3,725.50GB
I added 2 new disks to slots 2-3 which are Seagate Constellation product # ST4000NM0033-9ZM170 each 3,725.50GB
After adding them, I used the “Reconfigure” Task in the Virtual disk section of OpenManage Server Administrator to add the two extra disks to the “Backup” virtual drive.
Immediately, the State of the Backup Drive changed from “Ready” to “Reconstructing”.
The size of the drive remained the same however, 11,176.5 GB. I checked Windows DriveManagment, but there was no option to expand the drivespace.
This is disappointing, as I had hoped that the space would immediately jump by around 6TB.
I booted into the PERC bios configuration utility, and checked the physical disk state there. I have
DISK ID TYPE CAPACITY STATE DG VENDOR
00:01:00 SAS 558.37 GB ONLINE 00 SEAGATE
00:01:01 SAS 558.37 GB ONLINE 00 SEAGATE
00:01:02 SATA 3725.50 GB ONLINE -- ATA
00:01:03 SATA 3725.50 GB ONLINE -- ATA
00:01:04 SATA 3725.50 GB ONLINE 01 ATA
00:01:05 SATA 3725.50 GB ONLINE 01 ATA
00:01:06 SATA 3725.50 GB ONLINE 01 ATA
00:01:07 SATA 3725.50 GB ONLINE 01 ATA
There appears to be no option to add disks 2,3 to a DG (Disk Group?).
The installation was on Friday before lunch, and the reconstruction process has so far reached 16% (73 hours). That suggests that the reconstruction process may take 19 days.
Is there anything I can do? Will it add the drives to the DG when reconstruction is complete?
Dell-DylanJ
4 Operator
4 Operator
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2.9K Posts
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December 10th, 2018 11:00
Hello,
https://www.dell.com/storagecontrollermanuals
Above is the link to the H310 user guide. Based upon a review of that guide, it appears that the additional storage space will be available upon completion of the reconstruction operation. Considering that the drives are not members of the array until after the completion of this operation, I wouldn't expect that capacity to be available because the logical block addressing hasn't been created yet.
Once the operation is completed, Windows will still not yet expand the partitions. You would need to expand the partitions after the reconstruction, in order to make that raw storage into usable space.
Finally, the speed that you're seeing for the rebuild isn't unusual. This is a result of the controller being slower compared to the H710 or H710P, and that we have SATA drives.
Max Rockatansky
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December 10th, 2018 17:00