Increasing amount of storage for Dell T100 server

[Magic Miguel]

I have a client who I replaced two 300GB 15k SAS drives this afternoon. I replaced them with 600GB drives. I initially made a backup image of the installation and then set to install one drive at a time and let the RAID1 rebuild itself. I have come to the conclusion that I'm not going to be able to create a second partition from the new amount of space that should be left over. Or is there a way to do this without blowing it away and then re-applying the image to the new RAID1 set? This server is using the SAS 6/iR RAID card.

 

[gikstar]

You might consider using something like "EASEUS Partition Master Server Edition" for the task at hand. http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/business.html

Also, Acronis has a similar product: http://www.acronis.com/en-us/business/enterprise-solutions/server-partition-management/

 

[Magic Miguel]

You might consider using something like "EASEUS Partition Master Server Edition" for the task at hand. http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/business.html

Also, Acronis has a similar product: http://www.acronis.com/en-us/business/enterprise-solutions/server-partition-management/

Unfortunately the space does not even show up in diskmgmt so I can't even do that I don't think.

 

[HankArnold]

It doesn't work that way

As soon as you replaced 1 300 GB drive with a 600 GB drive, the RAID array reduced the available space on the new drive to 300GB. Adding the second new drive made no difference.

I'm not aware of any approach other than to rebuild the array and restore the drive.

What software did you use to back up the array? Hopefully its restore function can expand to use the entire drive. If not, then you may be able to use the built-n partition manager or, worst case, use something like what gikstar recommended. You may be able to get a 30 day free copy. Whatever you use, be sure to create another backup/image before messing with partitions.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

*edit after the fact*...just looked online on Dells forums...that SAS controller does not have online expansion options like I mentioned below. The "PERCs" do. But I'll leave the post for future references.

Most of the better hardware based RAID controllers have an option to "extend the volume". So...say you have a pair of 300 gig drives setup in RAID 1....you replace one drive with a 600 giger of course you still just have a 300 gig volume..and that's all you can get. But as soon as that mirror rebuilds...and you go ahead and replace the remaining 300 gig drive with a 600 giger...you should see in your RAID management utility an option to "extend". This will allow you to option to "stretch" that 300 gig RAID 1 volume to a 600 gig volume.

Now the extra ~300 gigs will show as available space in Windows Disk Mangler since it's being presented on the hardware level via the RAID controller...and you can quickly (assuming you're using Server 03 or higher) just run diskpart /extend at the command line and within the blink of an eye you'll have the extra space being used. No reboot required...it's instantly there. I do still like to reboot the server just to let the dust settle.

"DiskPart" is a utility built into Windows Server, I prefer using native tools.
One caveat...I don't know how the server is partitioned on the drive..if it's all 1 big partition...on the system volume..diskpart won't go live on partitions with pagefile.sys active. Hopefully this server was built with something like an 80 or 100 gig C drive (sysvolume) and the remaining ~200 gigs was a second partition for data. In which case you just run diskpart /extend against that D or E drive..and it's instant.

*Edit after the fact* Option B...if the Windows server install is split into two partitions...a C for system, and a D or E drive for data....what you can do is slap in another pair of drives, and create a second RAID volume. Now just copy over the second Windows partition to that new RAID volume.

 

[Markverhyden]

That's an entry level server so I'd guess that the SAS 6/iR RAID is entry level as well. A quick google shows that the SAS 6/iR RAID only does RAID 0 or 1. You could make a backup of the 300gb using Easeus or Acronis. Then pop in the two 600 gb drives, build the RAID 1 set, then run a restore to the set.

 

[Magic Miguel]

Thanks for the quick replies guys. I did indeed find out there's no chance of increase of the existing virtual disk. Client was disappointed that I didn't know this but hey it comes with the job. I am still learning and being humbled as I type this. I will backup and blow away the RAID and then restore. I am using Acronis backup for servers (I know someone had asked). Happy holidays!

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

Thanks for the quick replies guys. I did indeed find out there's no chance of increase of the existing virtual disk. Client was disappointed that I didn't know this but hey it comes with the job. I am still learning and being humbled as I type this. I will backup and blow away the RAID and then restore. I am using Acronis backup for servers (I know someone had asked). Happy holidays!

Just tell client no one knows everything about every piece of hardware. Learning to answer with that reply for the 1000th time without sounding flippant to the client is where experience comes in.

 

[Magic Miguel]

Just thought I'd let you all know I went back on Monday and made an image using Acronis and then broke the raid, re-created it so that it took up the full 600GB and then restored the image. Initially when I restored it it said it could not restore to the raid partition. I quickly did a Google search and found that I needed to fully partition it by creating the partition and then formatting it to NTFS. After I did this Acronis allowed me to restore the partition. All went well after about 1.5 hours thankfully. I saw it get to the splash screen, then looked down as I did not want to be disappointed by a bluescreen. When I finally looked up it was at the press ctrl alt del screen. I went into disk management and re-sized the D: partition which hosts the Exchange database and log files. We should be good for a while now. Thank you for all those that helped. Really appreciate it and Happy New Year!

 

[HankArnold]

Good News!

I went into disk management and re-sized the D: partition which hosts the Exchange database and log files. We should be good for a while now. Thank you for all those that helped. Really appreciate it and Happy New Year!

Good to hear. Glad it worked out. I've been there many times, waiting anxiously waiting and hoping not to see any errors. Thanks for posting back with the resolution.