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PowerEdge T610 HDD Configuration
Hi All,
I've been pouring over as many forums as possible to research the best way to reach the drive configuration that I need. I am kind of a noob at server administration and inherited a Poweredge T610 running a bare bones SBS 2003 R2 in a 25GB partition. I've found many similar cases but none exactly the same, in which I need to extend the system space and make both the system and data drives fault proof. If anybody has any leads to helpful posts, it would be greatly appreciated. In addition, I was just wanting some input as to my approach and if I'm heading down the right path. The current drive config and hardware are as follows:
1x250GB SAS HDD - contains C: partition (system) 25GB and D: partition (data) 225GB, 1x300GB SAS HDD - contains E: partition (backup), SAS 6/ir integrated raid controller (limited to 2 VD and RAID 0 or 1). I have a backup software (ABR 11.5 w/UR). There is no raid configured & drives are listed as foreign. Both are basic NTFS drives. I bought 2 drives whose model numbers match the two drives I currently have and 1 SAS Terabyte drive.
I want to separate the system & data partitions on their own respective drive with the system on the 250GB and the data on the 300GB drives. I also want to mirror these two drives in a RAID 1. Lastly, I want to install the 1TB drive as the backup (no raid).
The backup software has some "lite" disk director capabilities as well as disk cloning. First, install the 1TB drive and migrate all the backup data to it. Then I am going to back up the system & data partitions separately. Create a VD in RAID 1 with the two 300GB drives (i believe this can be done with OMSA), migrate the data partition with all permissions to the mirrored drive. Then create a second VD in RAID 1 (I believe this will be done in the BIOS) with the two 250GB drives and use recovery disk to restore the system onto the new 250GB mirrored drive (apparently the backup software can restore to unlike hardware and have the option to use all empty space vs. limiting to the size of the original backed up partition).
Seems simple enough, but am planning to take the server offline for the weekend to make sure I have enough time to do everything with time to spare in case I run into any snags. Does anybody have any input or suggestions? Any pointers or disclosures as to what I should NOT do.
DELL-Chris H
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October 22nd, 2013 07:00
DBK412,
To be honest with the current configuration, as well as what you are requesting, for stability sake you would be better off backing up any data or configuration files from the server and then delete and recreate the arrays as you want and then reinstall the OS. By moving system files around like you wanted you would run into issues.
I would suggest setting the 250GB pair into a raid 1 for the OS, then have the 300gb pair into a raid 1 for your data. You can then restore configuration and data files to the server. That would be the safest, and the most stable way to proceed.
Let me know what you think.
dbk412
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October 22nd, 2013 09:00
Chris,
Thanks for your quick response! Your input is greatly appreciated!
If you are saying I should perform a clean install of the OS once I’ve configured the raid how I want, I have seriously considered going that route and still am. I believe it is the safest route as well. I thought about looking into performing a clean install and then restoring the AD database from the backup. However, I am not a pro so I would need to research more about which configuration files I need to restore once I've reinstalled the OS? Last time I performed a clean install of SBS 2003 (recently) it took more than 3 days to install the literally hundreds of updates. Can I restore all the updates from the backup or would I have to install them all again from scratch?
Another option, I was considering for the OS drive was buying a global hotspare (same model as the 250GB), create the VD, clone the OS. Remove the old drive and Restart the server from the cloned drive and then format the old drive and keep as a global hot spare.