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uwuser

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uwuser

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August 8th, 2008 16:00

Adding drive to existing MD1000 array?

I'm about to purchase an MD1000 for my 2950 to boost my storage capacity; due to budget constraints, I'm unable to fill the drive bays in one shot and would like to confirm what was told to me by my Dell rep.


He advised that you can start off with a smaller number of drives and add drives to an existing array as your storage needs dictate (standard RAID caveats of same size and speed apply, of course). So can I assume if I start off with a 3 drive RAID-5 array, I can simply tack on additional drives and increase the size of the existing array without having to reformat to create a new array?

Feedback appreciated.

  • Dev Mgr

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    Posted August 8th, 2008 21:00

    What OS? If it's ESX, you can't really expand the filesystem (vmfs). If it's Linux, you can't grow beyond 8TB with ext3.

    If you provide which OS, I can provide more info.
  • uwuser

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    Posted August 8th, 2008 21:00

    Oops, forgot to include that.


    Windows Server 2008 Standard on Dell 2950 with Perc 6/e

     

    Cheers.

  • Dev Mgr

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    Posted August 10th, 2008 17:00

    If you haven't yet, install OpenManage Server Administrator 5.4.0 or later.

    Now open the server administrator (usually an icon on the desktop, or just open a browser and go to https://servername:1311.

    Log in with the server (windows) credentials.

    Go to "Storage" and then the PERC5E. Go to the virtual disks. In the drop down of the virtual disk select reconfigure and then click execute. Select on the left side the extra drive or drives to add and go through the wizard.

    This part will be time consuming (24+ hours isn't uncommon).

    After that use this Microsoft article to resize (extend) your partition.

    BIG NOTE: if you are below 2TB and will be extending to above 2TB (or have plans to do so in the future), go into disk management and right click the disk (not the partition on the disk), go to properties and then the volumes tab. Check the partition style. If it says Master Boot Record (MBR), you can't ever use the space above the 2TB point. If it says GUID Partition Table (GPT), you can grow beyond 2TB (next disk size/partitionable cap is 18 million TB). To convert from MBR to GPT, you have to remove all partitions from the disk and then right click the disk and select to convert to GPT. After that you can create a partition and restore your data.