suggestions for upgrading hard drive SQL server resides on?

[kevinNNI]

I would like to upgrade the hard drives that SQL server resides on to something bigger. currently we have 3x18gb drives in raid5, i would like to upgrade to 3x74gb raid5. i will partition that up into two equal halfs, one for the DB one for the backups. however, i would like some other opinions on my procedure. basically want to do this:

1) stop sql server and change services to manual. reboot
2) copy sql server to another server with enough storage
3) shut down server, pull out drives and install new ones. build container, format
4) ensure drive letter matches original sql install. copy sql server back. start services backup
5) pray

does this sound like a good plan? anyone have any other suggestions?

thanks!

 

[Jamfool]

why dont you just take a 18gb drive out, and swop for 74 and rebuild across raid?...your server is not hot swappable?

With regards to plan.

Back up all systems dbs, and your user db to disk and preferably another location.

Id sugest a partition for operating system, and one for your sql datafiles. (the actual mdfs and ldfs).

...also keeping your backups on your production box is rather a waste of time... if the box goes down you lose your backsup.

 

[kevinNNI]

thanks for the reply!

the os resides on a raid1 18gb parition, so i dont have to do much with that.

the backups are only there because we dont have space anywhere else. however we do take those backups to tape every night, so we're covered on that angle

dont i have to resize the partition if i swap out the 18's for 73's? we currently use dell servers so they are hot swappable, but i'm not sure if i can just swap out for a different size and then resize the parts on the file

 

[kevinNNI]

ack no edit feature.

on the FLY not file

 

[Jamfool]

Yeah, you will need to see if you can dynamically resize the array. some providers will let you , others wont. Not sure about dell as we have none. you may have to go down your original route if your hardware wont support it.