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Mike Cahn
Posts:6
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| 04-06-2008 06:37 PM |
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Sorry if this isn't the right place for a hardware question, but seemed the best match. I'm maintaining an older server running SBS2000. I don't have RAID experience so my questions are pretty basic!
The Server hardware is a Supermicro Dual Xeon 2.4 Ghz with 6 SCA SCSI hard disks configured as 2 RAID arrays. Originally it was 3 x 36 gb and 3 x 72gb but more space was added this year, I think by adding additional drives rather than swapping in larger ones, but I could be wrong as I cant find my notes on this (Alex?).
They are running out of disk space, and I need to increase drive space (which should be on RAID). So what I'd like to understand are (1) my options and (2) the basic tasks needed to add or upgrade these drives (they're hot swappable by the way) and (3) suggestions for good (pref. Irish) suppliers. Also are there SBS-specific implications here or does it all happen at a lower level and the server just sees the new drives / space when it appears?
Thanks for any tips or suggestions on further reading ;-) |
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David Houston
Posts:265
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| 04-06-2008 07:06 PM |
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Hi Mike,
A lot comes down to the RAID controller used, with the HP SmartArray RAID controllers, it is possible to add in more drives and to expand the RAID disk to include the new drives.
This does happen at a point below SBS, but the partitions are no bigger, just more space on the raid drive, which you can expand your non system drives into.
What is the RAID controller and firmware on it?
Thanks,
David |
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David Houston |
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Paul McDonnell
Posts:8
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| 04-06-2008 08:28 PM |
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Hey,
To really answer this question as David has said you would need all the information on the hardware controller.
Some options available to you are.
1. If there are slots available for more hard disks you could add additional create a new volume and partition this up whatever way suits and move data across to the new partition to re-share out.
2. If there are no slots available and if the RAID controller supports it you could swap out for larger disks this is below the OS and would have to be presented in a couple of different ways.
a. You could take a full backup of the data, delete the partitions, recreate with all the new space, partition up whatever way suits and restore the data back.
b. Use third party tools to add the extra space to a partition.
3. You could also use a third party image tool such as Acronis true image or ghost take a snapshot of the whole server destroy the whole thing rebuild with new disks and restore the image back.
4. Tell them it is time to buy a new server and install SBS 2003 or wait till Q4 to install SBS 2008.
Of course before I do any of these make sure you have a full backup of everything always plan for the worst outcome in these events.
Paul
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Mike Cahn
Posts:6
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| 04-06-2008 11:15 PM |
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Thanks Dave & Paul,
The RAID controller is, according to the notes left to me by the last IT person, an "Adaptec Zero Channel Raid ARray Controller". No other info on it in my notes, would need to go onsite for more details.
There are slots available although it's possible one or more are faulty, I seem to recall some note about that.
I definitely want to go the least risky route. I would backup of course but don't want to do a rebuild or anything. This system has been stable for a while and I really don't want to rock the boat!
Very unlikely they'll have the funds to upgrade the server or SBS anytime soon.
Mike |
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David Houston
Posts:265
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| 05-06-2008 03:57 PM |
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Hi Mike,
Just looking at the Adaptec Website. If you are sure that you have the SCSI version, it looks like you may have the Adaptec RAID 4000
http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/sas/raid/SAS-4000/index.htm
This has the Adaptec Zero Channel RAID technology.
Looking at the specs of the card, it does support Online Capacity Expansion, with that you coud definitely put in more drives and then expand out the partitions.
Though as I do not use Adpatec cards myself I can not be sure that you can put in larger drives and expand the RAID drive to include the new space, for that others may know, or asking the Adaptec support team.
HTH
David |
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David Houston |
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Ivan Kelleher
Posts:46
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| 05-06-2008 09:58 PM |
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Hi Mike,
I've discussed RAID expansion with both HP and Dell engineers over the last few years and none of them really recommend it - they say "do you want to risk it?" - the advice given was to delete the array and create a new one - I'd love to hear more comments on successful RAID expansions!
In your situation, I would assume that Array1 has the O/S and Array2 has the data - you didn't mention if there were free drive bays. I can see 2 possibilties: 1) Use external storage, 2) Backup or Clone Array2 onto an IDE disk, Delete Array2, Install new disks, Create Array2, Restore!
If this is an SBS 2000 machine, then it is is circa 4 years old so the hardware is getting tired. Time for an upgrade. Bring on SBS 2008.
Good Luck
Ivan |
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Paul McDonnell
Posts:8
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| 08-06-2008 11:22 AM |
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Hey,
I have expanded RAID arrays on Compaq/HP hardware and while it works and works well, it really is a case of horses for courses; one of the reasons not to expand is simply that it takes a very long time this is because you have to replace a disk and wait for it to rebuild the data and this can take days in some cases. When the array is expanded you then have to present the extra space to OS somehow.
With disk space so cheap at present I would rarely expand an array and would always go for the option of backup and restore it might take a weekend depending on the amount of data but when it is done, it’s done.
Hope this helps.
Paul
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David Houston
Posts:265
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| 09-06-2008 07:08 PM |
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Hi All,
My experiences with RAID have been similar to Paul's.
I have found it easy enough to expand an array with HP/Compaq Smart Array controllers. But from a speed and performance of getting things done, you might look at imaging backing up the drive, using something like storagecraft, and then replacing the hard drives that you need removed, and put in the new larger capacity drives, creating the larger RAID drive, and then restoring from the drive image the data you backed up earlier.
Just be sure to test this out before trying on your production and also, test the backup once twice three times to make sure it backed up your data correctly.
Just a quick PS, StorageCraft's product can be using to do complete Disaster Recovery to dissimilar hardware. Acronis and th newer Symantec products can do this too. |
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David Houston |
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Mike Cahn
Posts:6
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| 24-06-2008 10:59 AM |
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i was just onsite. more details of the setup are below.
physically there are 10 drive bays - 2 rows of 5. all but the two upper left ones have drives in them. the lower right one is the C: boot drive - i found this out the hard way (don't ask!)
if you have the expertise to do this and availability to come to rathnew co wicklow, i'd like to get a quote for upgrading the drive capacity on this machine. it's beyond my area of comfort ;-)
thanks
mike
here are details:
Disk Mgt:
Disk0: C: 59 gig. E: (Raid Data1): 4.8 gig. F: (spare): 4.96 gig
Disk1: D: (RAID Data2): 136.9 gig
DIsk2: Raid1 32.2 gig (no drive letter)
Disk3: H: (external USB/Firewire drive)
Device Mgr shows:
Adaptec RAID-1 scsi disk drive. Bus 1 taget id 1
Adaptec RAID-5 scsi disk drive. Bus 0 taget id 0
Adaptec RAID-5 scsi disk drive. Bus 0 taget id 3
System Information report written at: 24/06/2008 10:17:38
[SCSI]
Item Value
Name Adaptec SCSI Card 29160 Ultra160 SCSI
Caption Adaptec SCSI Card 29160 Ultra160 SCSI
Driver adpu160m
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_9005&DEV_0080&SUBSYS_E2A09005&REV_02\5&2A763D68&0&08F810
Device ID PCI\VEN_9005&DEV_0080&SUBSYS_E2A09005&REV_02\5&2A763D68&0&08F810
Device Map Not Available
Index Not Available
Max Number Controlled Not Available
IRQ Number 24
I/O Port 0x3000-0x3FFF
Driver c:\winnt\system32\drivers\adpu160m.sys (91271, d4.2 (4.10.4002))
Name Adaptec 2010S Ultra320
Caption Adaptec 2010S Ultra320
Driver dpti2o
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A511&SUBSYS_C0351044&REV_01\5&248B5C44&0&08F818
Device ID PCI\VEN_1044&DEV_A511&SUBSYS_C0351044&REV_01\5&248B5C44&0&08F818
Device Map Not Available
Index Not Available
Max Number Controlled Not Available
IRQ Number 72
Driver c:\winnt\system32\drivers\dpti2o.sys (20256, 3.13)
***********
System Information report written at: 24/06/2008 10:16:59
[Drives]
Item Value
Drive A:
Description 3 1/2 Inch Floppy Drive
Drive C:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed False
File System NTFS
Size 58.59 GB (62,915,133,440 bytes)
Free Space 23.96 GB (25,727,209,472 bytes)
Volume Name
Volume Serial Number C4F9EFFC
Partition Disk #0, Partition #0
Partition Size 58.59 GB (62,915,134,464 bytes)
Starting Offset 32256 bytes
Drive Description Disk drive
Drive Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Drive Model ADAPTEC RAID-5 SCSI Disk Device
Drive BytesPerSector 512
Drive MediaLoaded True
Drive MediaType Fixed hard disk media
Drive Partitions 3
Drive SCSIBus 0
Drive SCSILogicalUnit 0
Drive SCSIPort 3
Drive SCSITargetId 0
Drive SectorsPerTrack 63
Drive Size 73492876800 bytes
Drive TotalCylinders 8935
Drive TotalSectors 143540775
Drive TotalTracks 2278425
Drive TracksPerCylinder 255
Drive D:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed False
File System NTFS
Size 136.91 GB (147,002,171,392 bytes)
Free Space 3.70 GB (3,968,286,720 bytes)
Volume Name RAID DATA 2
Volume Serial Number C49EBF38
Partition Disk #1, Partition #0
Partition Size 136.91 GB (147,002,171,904 bytes)
Starting Offset 32256 bytes
Drive Description Disk drive
Drive Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Drive Model ADAPTEC RAID-5 SCSI Disk Device
Drive BytesPerSector 512
Drive MediaLoaded True
Drive MediaType Fixed hard disk media
Drive Partitions 1
Drive SCSIBus 0
Drive SCSILogicalUnit 0
Drive SCSIPort 3
Drive SCSITargetId 3
Drive SectorsPerTrack 63
Drive Size 147010429440 bytes
Drive TotalCylinders 17873
Drive TotalSectors 287129745
Drive TotalTracks 4557615
Drive TracksPerCylinder 255
Drive E:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed False
File System NTFS
Size 4.88 GB (5,239,468,032 bytes)
Free Space 1.23 GB (1,322,938,368 bytes)
Volume Name RAID DATA1
Volume Serial Number 7471BA32
Partition Disk #0, Partition #1
Partition Size 9.84 GB (10,569,484,800 bytes)
Starting Offset Not Available
Drive Description Disk drive
Drive Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Drive Model ADAPTEC RAID-5 SCSI Disk Device
Drive BytesPerSector 512
Drive MediaLoaded True
Drive MediaType Fixed hard disk media
Drive Partitions 3
Drive SCSIBus 0
Drive SCSILogicalUnit 0
Drive SCSIPort 3
Drive SCSITargetId 0
Drive SectorsPerTrack 63
Drive Size 73492876800 bytes
Drive TotalCylinders 8935
Drive TotalSectors 143540775
Drive TotalTracks 2278425
Drive TracksPerCylinder 255
Drive F:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed False
File System NTFS
Size 4.96 GB (5,329,948,672 bytes)
Free Space 3.21 GB (3,451,244,544 bytes)
Volume Name SPARE
Volume Serial Number F081A724
Partition Disk #0, Partition #1
Partition Size 9.84 GB (10,569,484,800 bytes)
Starting Offset Not Available
Drive Description Disk drive
Drive Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Drive Model ADAPTEC RAID-5 SCSI Disk Device
Drive BytesPerSector 512
Drive MediaLoaded True
Drive MediaType Fixed hard disk media
Drive Partitions 3
Drive SCSIBus 0
Drive SCSILogicalUnit 0
Drive SCSIPort 3
Drive SCSITargetId 0
Drive SectorsPerTrack 63
Drive Size 73492876800 bytes
Drive TotalCylinders 8935
Drive TotalSectors 143540775
Drive TotalTracks 2278425
Drive TracksPerCylinder 255
Drive H:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed False
File System NTFS
Size 465.76 GB (500,105,216,000 bytes)
Free Space 265.80 GB (285,399,523,328 bytes)
Volume Name Natura Backup 1
Volume Serial Number 0CCB161E
Partition Disk #3, Partition #0
Partition Size 465.76 GB (500,105,217,024 bytes)
Starting Offset 32256 bytes
Drive Description Disk drive
Drive Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Drive Model WD External HDD Device IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device
Drive BytesPerSector 512
Drive MediaLoaded True
Drive MediaType Fixed hard disk media
Drive Partitions 1
Drive SCSIBus Not Available
Drive SCSILogicalUnit Not Available
Drive SCSIPort Not Available
Drive SCSITargetId Not Available
Drive SectorsPerTrack 63
Drive Size 500105249280 bytes
Drive TotalCylinders 60801
Drive TotalSectors 976768065
Drive TotalTracks 15504255
Drive TracksPerCylinder 255
Drive M:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed False
File System NTFS
Size 58.59 GB (62,915,133,440 bytes)
Free Space 23.96 GB (25,727,209,472 bytes)
Volume Name Exchange
Volume Serial Number 00A98AC7
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David Houston
Posts:265
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| 26-06-2008 12:24 PM |
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<div class='NTForums_Quote'>Posted By Mike Cahn on 24-06-2008 10:59 AM
Disk Mgt:
Disk0: C: 59 gig. E: (Raid Data1): 4.8 gig. F: (spare): 4.96 gig
Disk1: D: (RAID Data2): 136.9 gig
DIsk2: Raid1 32.2 gig (no drive letter)
Disk3: H: (external USB/Firewire drive)
</div>
Hi Mike,
Before going ahead and making the changes I would get the 32GB of unused space formated and move data to it, such as the Exchange Databases so as you get the most out of the existing hardware.
If you have any questions please call me on 087 6810844 and I will happily help you through it.
HTH
David |
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David Houston |
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Mike Cahn
Posts:6
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| 26-06-2008 06:09 PM |
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| Good point, and thanks for the offer! Before I go ahead, I emailed Alex (who has seen the system and did an upgrade), since I think I remember seeing something that made me think that drive *is* being used, despite not having a drive letter. Will let you know what I find out... |
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David Houston
Posts:265
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| 27-06-2008 06:29 PM |
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Hi Mike the offer is there, so please do not hesitate.
David |
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David Houston |
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