Upgrade Disk Space by Imaging to New Array

Question

I have a PowerEdge 2800 with Perc4 controller and 3-72GB drives in a Raid 5 configuration. I want to replace those drives with 146GB drives and would like to expand the C: partition in the process.   Will the following process work? Add the new drives to the system (2800 has 8 drives bays) Create a new Raid 5 partition on new drives Create the volumes on the new partition. Boot the server with imaging software. Image the current volumes to the new volumes. Power down the server. Remove the old drives. Power up the server. Utilize new disk space.   Thanks.

pcmeiners · Answer

Message Edited by pcmeiners on 12-07-2007 11:54 AM

ggathagan · Answer

Yep, Should work fine.

A variation would be: Image the existing array.
Take out old drives. Install new drives.
Create a new Raid 5 partition on new drives.
Boot the server with imaging software.
Image the current volumes to the new volumes.
Power up the server.
Utilize new disk space.

That way, if something goes south in the process, your original array can be put back in, having never had knowledge of the second array.

A subtle difference, and it probably wouldn't matter in the long run .

Message Edited by ggathagan on 12-07-2007 04:23 PM

phillips1000 · Answer

I like your idea better then mine, so I'm going to give it a try.   Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it.

phillips1000 · Answer

Any recommendations as to imaging software?

pcmeiners · Answer

Used Ghost a few times but I use Acronis True Image server mostly (expensive).

ggathagan · Answer

Yep, Acronis for Windows and Portlock for Netware. I believe Acronis will also handle Linux servers, but I've not personally tried it.

LarryMcL · Answer

I ran across this thread during my server HDD upgrade, very helpful, thanks!  I used your sequence instructions dated  12-07-2007 06:22 PM .       It worked well except for the after affects.  My disk space allocations didn't come out right.  I used Acronis True Image Echo Server for Windows as my tool to accomplist the system imaging and restoration.  I booted to the Acronis boot CD that I created and ran the 'full' application.  I went through the motions of increasing the size of the C: and D: partitions during the Recovery Wizard process, but it did not work out this way in the end.  One thing I noticed during the recovery was an almost unnoticeable text message at the top of the screen that said 'NO RAID'.  It didn't stop or prompt me to do anything, it just kept on going..............   Here's the before and after tech details.   BEFORE Dell 500SC with CERC ATA100/4ch controller;  (3) 20GB drives in RAID 5 logical array,  partitions:   C: (4GB), and D: (36GB)     AFTER (3) 120 GB drives in RAID5 logical array, same controller  partitions:  C:  (4GB), D: (36GB), and unallocated (186.25GB)      Here is the question I hope you/someone can help me with:   How do I get the system to allocate the 186GB to the C: and D: partitions like I need them to be?   Thanks and Merry Christmas Ya'll!!   LM

ggathagan · Answer

That 'NO RAID' message seems strange. If you're creating the RAID array in the controller card and the original server had the driver installed, Acronis shouldn't care about RAID. I'm making the assumption that you're creating the RAID array via the controller BIOS, as opposed to software RAID within Windows itself, correct? I've not used the TrueImage Echo server version of Acronis, but it doesn't look significantly different than the versions I've used (8 and 9). I also find it exceedingly odd that Acronis didn't say anything about the fact that it didn't expand the partitions during the recovery process. Can you give us further details on your server? For instance: Version of Windows you're running. Were your Windows volumes dynamic disks? Are you able to play around with this server or is it a production unit? Message Edited by ggathagan on 12-18-2007 01:03 PM

LarryMcL · Answer

We're running Win-2K Server and I do not think the disks were dynamic disks.   The server is our only production server, small biz here.   I have tried to 'talk' to a tech at Acronis, but this apparently is not possible.  My only options are chat Live with a sales person or email support.  I'm using the Trial version and have not decided to buy yet, so the support is very poor.     I have posed the question to Acronis and still waiting to hear what they have to say.   thanks, LM

phillips1000 · Answer

I upgraded my sever using the above procedure with the following added steps; After configuring the disk into a RAID 5 array I booted the server using a WinPE 2.0 disk and created the volumes using diskpart increasing the size of C and allocating the rest of the space to D.  I assigned drive letters to the new volumes, had some problem with that because the CD drive was automatically assigned D. I then formatted the drives via WinPE format command format C: /FS:NTFS /Q did the same for D Used diskpart to set C: to active. Rebooted server with imaging software and restored partitions. D did not reimage correctly so I had to recreate the partition in SBS 2003 and restored it using a backup I had also created. After restoring D I rebooted the server because I had most of my applications installed on the D drive. The only problem I ran into was the I was getting Event ID 7001 concerning 'Unable to create a Shadow copy'. I was able to correct that problem by referring to Microsoft article ID 833779.   The next time I have to do this I'm going to try using Microsoft's imagex and see how it works.   Thanks for everyone's help.

ggathagan · Answer

Was the original system running SBS 2003?

phillips1000 · Answer

Yes, SBS 2003 SP1

ggathagan · Answer

Interesting. The whole point of imaging is to avoid the very issues you had. You shouldn't need to create *anything* before restoring the image. I've only used Acronis on win2K servers, so I can't speak to anything that the newer OS does, but you shouldn't have to go through some many hoops to restore/resize volumes.

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

Upgrade Disk Space by Imaging to New Array

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