Well, it is not as easy as it sounds. You can add the drives to the RAID 5 easily enough, but inserting the drives, then - using OpenManage Server Administrator - go to Storage>PERC 4e/Di>Virtual Disks and choosing Reconfigure from the drop down of available tasks. This will start a wizard that will see your new disks, and ask how you want to use them and how you want to reconfigure the array. Just choose the drives and select RAID 5 and it will make a bigger RAID 5 out of it. This is generally data-safe, however, please have backup before attempting.
Once that is complete, Windows will show the extra GB's as Unallocated Space. You will need to use some kind of utility to extend the partitions.
1) Server 2008 DVD - boot to it and select Extend in the Disk Utilities section of installation (you won't be installing - it is just prep).
2) Dell's ExtPart Utility - instructions can be provided, but will not work on Dynamic Disks and must be run from Administrator account.
3) Third-party "pay" utility, like Acronis Disk Manager, which can resize partitions without deleting anything - keeping data intact.
Now, to "extend" a partition using options 1 or 2, you must extend into Unpartitioned Space. Which means, if you want to grow the C: partition, you must first delete the D: partition. You can do that by backing up D:, deleting it, creating the desired partition sizes, then restoring; or you can create a new partition with the new Unallocated Space, move data from D: to it, delete D:, then extend C:.
I have cheked the OpenManage Server Administrator and I did not find any Virtual Disks or Reconfigure function under it. The version I have on the server is 4.5. Moreover, the Windows 2003 server that installed is a 64 bit with SP1. What shoud I do if I have only 1 GB left on the C: bootable partition.
If I will go with the Third-party "pay" utility option , like Acronis Disk Manager, do I still have to backup the data on D: partition and restored it back.
Does inserting the new drives need to shut down the server or not ? Can I instert the drives while the server is alive.
1) If you do not have any sub-options under Storage, then the Storage Management portion of OMSA 4.5 may not have been installed. Below is a link to the latest version.
You can clean things off of C: by moving any "personal" files like My Documents, any Shared data that may be on the drive, and/or the Page File. (Note that you cannot delete a partition with a Page File, so if you are only moving it temporarily, you will need to move it back before you delete D:.)
2) Acronis does resize the partitions without the need for deleting any partitions, but I would have a backup before attempting this, as anytime you mess with the system partition, you never really know what can happen.
3) Drive can be (and should be) put in while the system is running.
Download and run to extract files, then run C:\Openmanage\windows\setup.exe (can be extracted on another partition, but must "install" on C:). Choose Custom installation and make sure that Storage Management (and all subfeatures) is installed. You should then have options under Storage such as to view Virtual Disks, Physical Disks, Driver/Firmware, etc. Remember that you must be logged on as Administrator to have the dropdown options.
theflash1932
9 Legend
•
16.3K Posts
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March 16th, 2010 09:00
Well, it is not as easy as it sounds. You can add the drives to the RAID 5 easily enough, but inserting the drives, then - using OpenManage Server Administrator - go to Storage>PERC 4e/Di>Virtual Disks and choosing Reconfigure from the drop down of available tasks. This will start a wizard that will see your new disks, and ask how you want to use them and how you want to reconfigure the array. Just choose the drives and select RAID 5 and it will make a bigger RAID 5 out of it. This is generally data-safe, however, please have backup before attempting.
Once that is complete, Windows will show the extra GB's as Unallocated Space. You will need to use some kind of utility to extend the partitions.
1) Server 2008 DVD - boot to it and select Extend in the Disk Utilities section of installation (you won't be installing - it is just prep).
2) Dell's ExtPart Utility - instructions can be provided, but will not work on Dynamic Disks and must be run from Administrator account.
3) Third-party "pay" utility, like Acronis Disk Manager, which can resize partitions without deleting anything - keeping data intact.
Now, to "extend" a partition using options 1 or 2, you must extend into Unpartitioned Space. Which means, if you want to grow the C: partition, you must first delete the D: partition. You can do that by backing up D:, deleting it, creating the desired partition sizes, then restoring; or you can create a new partition with the new Unallocated Space, move data from D: to it, delete D:, then extend C:.
Let me know what questions you have.
ash11231
2 Posts
0
March 17th, 2010 03:00
Thanks a lot for your kind response.
theflash1932
9 Legend
•
16.3K Posts
0
March 17th, 2010 08:00
1) If you do not have any sub-options under Storage, then the Storage Management portion of OMSA 4.5 may not have been installed. Below is a link to the latest version.
You can clean things off of C: by moving any "personal" files like My Documents, any Shared data that may be on the drive, and/or the Page File. (Note that you cannot delete a partition with a Page File, so if you are only moving it temporarily, you will need to move it back before you delete D:.)
2) Acronis does resize the partitions without the need for deleting any partitions, but I would have a backup before attempting this, as anytime you mess with the system partition, you never really know what can happen.
3) Drive can be (and should be) put in while the system is running.
OMSA - ftp://ftp.dell.com/sysman/OM_5.5.0_ManNode_A00.exe
Download and run to extract files, then run C:\Openmanage\windows\setup.exe (can be extracted on another partition, but must "install" on C:). Choose Custom installation and make sure that Storage Management (and all subfeatures) is installed. You should then have options under Storage such as to view Virtual Disks, Physical Disks, Driver/Firmware, etc. Remember that you must be logged on as Administrator to have the dropdown options.