Extending RAID 5 (HP DL380 G5)

m4cc45

m4cc45

m4cc45

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Hi,

I think I need a 3rd party piece of software to do this (if so whats it called)?

Basically we have a HP DL380 G5 server.

It originally had 5 hard-drives RAID 5 (all 146GB) in there split into 3 partitions running Windows 2003 (fully updated).

C: O/S
D: DATA
E: Stuff

Now we have added an extra 3 hard-drives (all 146GB) and want to extend the current array - however the option is not present in HP ACU.

We want the rest of the space to be assigned to E: as well. Is there an easy way to do this. I'm sure I didn't have this many problems when I last did this.

Any software that I might need (regardless of the cost) would be good as well.

Thanks,



M.
 
a bit off topic but what company do you work for? always nice to see a fellow gloucester worker in the same sort of job
 
I work for a Building Society mate. Didn't realise you were in Gloucester (as I've seen you around a lot). I actually work in Stroud but live in Gloucester.



M.
 
m4cc45 said:
Yup - which department do you work in?

:D
Click to expand...

ah i dont work there myself. but i live right next to it (flats above mackays) :D and i know a few people who work there, my missus, dads, partner works there (names gill) and my mates just got a job at the branch up the road from the head office (names danny)

small world though eh? :D

i work over at archway school by the way, IT techy, let me know if theres any IT tech jobs going over there! :p
 
Not familiar with that server or whatever controller it uses but look on the HP site for a RAID managment utility that runs within your OS and should let you expand the array.
 
mrbios said:
im not sure which is worse :D
Click to expand...

I love coming back to Stroud these days, nice to come back for a weekend, go and have a pint on the common with old friends. can't say I'd want to live there any more though, so little on, such bad clubs....

I like London but we're looking at moving to Brighton or similar at the moment, time to get out of the big city...though I'll just commute for work...
 
Oh, @OP

Having had a quick look in ACU I can't see anything obvious actually, but then I don't have a box with a spare drive to extend the array on to. Could be under 'migrate RAID/stripe size' i suppose...
 
There was a techy job as a trainee which has just gone but there may be more coming up - on the website is a vacancies list but if I hear anything I'll give you a shout.

I can't find anything on the ACU at all I've created a new raid set and tried to see if I can merge it to no joy there is no extend option what-so-ever though in the documentation it says there is.

Sigh!

Perhaps a Stroud reunion drink sometime in the future? :)



M.
 
m4cc45 said:
Hi,

I think I need a 3rd party piece of software to do this (if so whats it called)?

Basically we have a HP DL380 G5 server.

It originally had 5 hard-drives RAID 5 (all 146GB) in there split into 3 partitions running Windows 2003 (fully updated).

C: O/S
D: DATA
E: Stuff

Now we have added an extra 3 hard-drives (all 146GB) and want to extend the current array - however the option is not present in HP ACU.

We want the rest of the space to be assigned to E: as well. Is there an easy way to do this. I'm sure I didn't have this many problems when I last did this.

Any software that I might need (regardless of the cost) would be good as well.

Thanks,



M.
Click to expand...


I'm sure you can do this, i just increased the storage on a much older DL 370 and i remember seeing the option to do this. In fact, the server was maxed out being full of 32Gb disks, having originally had only three. Someone before me had extended it onto its current 5 disks, essentially doing what you are wanting to do.

No problem extending e: either, go into disk management when you have added the extra space and you will see the unallocated space. Just extend the Windows logical volume onto this.
 
mrbios said:
a bit off topic but what company do you work for? always nice to see a fellow gloucester worker in the same sort of job
Click to expand...

Also off topic, I work in Cheltenham, not too far away. ;)

IIRC (its been a long time since I expanded an array) unless you use something like partition magic you will have to use the new space as a seperate drive letter. It presents the new space as a new volume.
 
Last edited:
Well when I go into the ACU (Array Configuration Utility for those who haven't heard of it before) there is no option to extend. So I have 5 disks in a RAID 5 array. Array A in this case. So if I create a new array, Array B, then when you go to Disk Management it's seen as a new disk so you can't extend it.

I've read the manual and there is an extend option but I can't seem to see what I'm missing - there must be an easy way to do this but for the life of me I can't see it - lol



M.
 
Just tried it on a server here. Delete Array B then clock on Array A. Go to manage / extent (can't remember exactly). It will then provide you with the option to include the unassigned disks to the array.
 
A friendly warning: even if you manage to extend the array, this does not automatically expand the size of the logical volumes. This is done via the DISKPART commandline, which can be done fine for the E: drive but a point to note is that you can't do the same for C: (if you wanted to?) as DISKPART does not support Boot volumes.

Perhaps use one drive as an online hot spare for the array? RAID-5 only provides N+1 fault tolerance so it would provide an automatic recovery procedure & an extra layer of fault tolerance although I'll admit it can be hard to justify the expense of a whole disk 'just' for this. It would have saved me in the past when a disk failed on a RAID-5 volume on a server @ work with no hot spare & the manufacturer took so long to supply a replacment (under NBD warranty I hasten to add) that I ended up with a couple of (fortunately non system-critical) bad stripes on the volume :(

** EDIT **

Apparently, on certain RAID cards in the DL380 G5 (such as the P400 & E200), unless you have the Battery Backed Write Cache (BBWC) module for the RAID card, you don't get the option for Array Expansion (I notice there's also options for RAID-6, ADG (both P400 only) and logical drive expansion!)

Specs - link

There's two options if your server lacks the BBWC module:

E200:
128-MB BBWC (Battery-Backed Write Cache) Enabler - 351580-B21

P400:
Battery-backed write cache upgrade - 383280-B21
(Battery Only - for P400/256Mb model to enable BBWC but not upgrade cache)
512MB Battery-backed cache upgrade - 405148-B21
(Battery and 512Mb Module - for P400 models w/o cache or to upgrade cache on 256Mb model)
 
Last edited:
Hi Mate

Thanks for that - however still doesn't work (i've attached a screenshot).

The controller is the onboard Ultra 320 SCSI controller SmartArray P400.



Can't see any manage/extend options.





M.
 
No probs! Might want to re-read my edited post above ;)

Also worth checking you've got the latest versions of the Firmware (5.20 - released 23/05/08) and the Array Config Utility (ACU) (8.0.14.0)

P400 Firmware - link

ACU - link
 
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