Addition of another SCSI HDD in RAID 5?

[atanoli]

Dear everyone:

I have win2k server installed on IBM xSeries 230 with RAID 5 configure each SCSI HDD is 30GB. And this is my email and proxy server. Now my C partition has been nearly out of space. I got another 30GB hard disk.

Please tell me what is the best procedure to upgrade my hard disk so that my service not disturb for a long time. I want to do this in shortest possible time.

Any information will be highly obliged.

 

[richgill]

Do you only have a C: drive or are there other partitions? If only a C: drive then do you mind having a 30GB D: drive or would you prefer your C: drive to grow by 30GB? The former is easy!

 

[atanoli]

Actually i have 3 scsi hard disks of 30 gb each. 1st partition is C: 9GB and all other is using D.

How i can extend the size of my C drive space without disturbing too much service?

wbr

 

[richgill]

Is it a hardware RAID? I have a feeling that if you add the 30GB drive to the RAID set then it will still appear to the OS as another drive - in your case an E: drive.

Increasing the size of the C: partition is not easy without rebuilding the whole system. Are the disks Dynamic? If the C: drive was created on a Dynamic disk then you can increase it's size using the spare disk. (NB this does not work on a partition that was on a Basic disk that got upgraded to a Dynamic disk. So this probably wont work for you). mmmm tricky!! Various options that spring to mind:

1) Backup the server, wipe it, set up the RAID as you want it and then reinstall the OS, software etc, etc.

2) Backup the server using a Disaster Recovery option - this depends on the backup software you have. This allows you to restore the whole server by booting from a floppy (or CD) and connecting to a tape drive (ie without having to restore the OS first). So you do the backup, set up the RAID set & partitions and then restore from tape.

3) Backup the D: drive. Delete D: drive and use some software like Partition Magic to increase the size of the C: drive. Then, if you set the existing disk and the new disk to Dynamic disks, you can create a spanned volume and restore the D: drive to it.

All pretty horrible. Anyone got an easier solution?

 

[Beaghler]

Compaq has a procedure for adding drives into a RAID. I would assume that IBM has one too. Check their website. If you can add the drive into the array, the rest is cake.

By the way, consider this: keep only essential items on "C". We keep only operating system related products on "C", all others on "D", "E", etc. This includes the Virus software, backup, and the like. We did this for just that reason- we kept running "C" out of space.

 

[richgill]

Yes, but I think if you use the Compaq or IBM utility to add the new drive to the RAID set it still appear as a new drive to the OS. I totally agree with you about the C: drive - OS only!

NB Another thing you can do is add the new drive as a directory on the C: drive. ie create a sub-directory such as C:\data and then (in Windows 2000) you can get that new directory to point to the 30GB hard disk you have just added. A very quick & easy solution.

 

[atanoli]

My C is Basic partition.

I think i have left only option to make backup and reinstall whole server. Errrrr.

Anyways thank you very much for replying. You guys are very nice.

bye