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DL360 Hard Drive Upgrade

Alright guys, I am in the process of upgrading hard drives on my Exchange box.  It originally had two 36.4gb drives in it, I ended up getting two 72.8gb drives in the machine today.  I pulled one 36.4gb drive and put in the new drive, let it rebuild and did the same for the second drive.  From what I have been reading it says I should extend the drive using the Array Configuration Utility.  However, I found something that I thought was a little off, the Array utility gives me some strange numbers, it is saying the logical drive is 34gb and the unused space is 69gb.  If I hit extend will this adjust the total logical drive size to 69gb and maintain the raid 1 setup?  These numbers just don't make sense to me.  This is a production server just want to make that clear.  Also, see attached screenshot.  All I want to do is retain raid 1 and just have the 72.8gb logical drive size minus the overhead.  

Thanks in advance.
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Sorry you might have zoom in after downloading the attached screenshot, it is defaulting at 75% and unreadable.
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What should I use to backup these partitions?
Do you use any backup tool for your internal backup policy? If not then you can use trial version of Paragon Drive Backup 10 Server Edition: www.drive-backup.com
In case something goes wrong you will be able to boot the server from Recovery CD and restore from image.
Also, there are other backup tool vendors such as Symantec, Acronis etc. But Paragon is easiest to use.
Yeah, I guess I can just extend our current backup today and backup the C drive as it is the only partition.



We have backupexec btw.
Also, once this is done and I go to extend the drive, if you check the screenshot I should type in the full 69452 and not the default 34726, correct?
It says that you can select space between 34726 and 69452 which is max of available space. I would select 69400. So leaving 52MB at the end.
Why would you leave 52mb at the end?  Also, little worried, trying to figure out if my controller even supports logical drive extension, the dl360 is an old G1.  I am trying to find info on this Smart Array 5302/128 integrated controller it has.
52MB is left for the cases if you could like to convert the drive into dynamic and build some dynamic configurations in future. But if no such plans then use full available space.
And finally if Utility gives you such option as extending - then it does support it.
BTW, does Windows Disk Management see this free unallocated space?
Disk management does not see the free space, which also worries me.
And this array controller utility sometimes crashes when I open it for some reason, not sure why, using Array Configuration Utility 7.61.2.0, maybe it isn't the correct version.
Ok, here is my advice - take backup and go with extension. You loose nothing. If it extends you would need resizing tool as I mentioned before. If it fails - you will have to reconfigure the RAID and restore from backup using Symantec boot CD.
If it extends the logical drive to 69 then why would I need the resizing tool?  Also, I have never actually had a disaster recovery scenario, do you know how to make the symantec recovery cd?
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Gotcha.  I am going to go ahead and hit extend, we will see what happens. I know I got a backup of the C drive today, full backup monday (backupexec) and the two drives I pulled yesterday, so I should be good.

Not sure how long this will take, but i will keep this updated, also, is there a free third party windows app to allocate space other than parted magic?
Now Windows based one that is free. Only Linux based Parted Magic 4.0 www.partedmagic.com
But first wait till the operation completes.
Yep, it is in the process as we speak, any idea how long it will take?
I will have to play with the parted magic on my machine, need to see how it works.
"any idea how long it will take? depends on RAID controller. Could take from 10 minutes to several hours. You will know when it is done via Windows Disk Management.
67%, theoretically, it should be done in about an hour and a half hopefully.
Good.
Moving slow, it is only at 76% now.  

For the parted magic, looks like you have to boot to the cd for this, correct?  You can't do this while the server is online?
Yes, correct. Only works from CD and you must be sure that your RAID controller is detected properly.
I personally use Paragon Partition Manager 11 for the purpose of resize and it works as it should even in Windows.
I just booted to the parted magic disk on my workstation.  Seems like nice utilities, but kind of risky after reading some stuff on their site.  Namely, you have to reboot right away after you make any changes or else it will run chckdsk etc.  Sounds a little scary.  Hmmmmm....wonder if Acronis makes something cheaper.  Or have you priced this stuff out already?
I just talked to my manager about the Paragon software, a little pricey, but we are probably going to look into it.  As far as the parted freeware have you used this on servers?  Will keep this updated, 84%.  
Yes, I used almost all partitioning tools such as Partition Magic 8 by Powerquest, Paragon Partition Manager 9-10-11, Acronis Disk Director, BootIt NG, Parted Magic, Gparted (which is actually same as Parted Magic).
So can give assistance with any of these =)
I used Parted Magic twice on servers and once it gave me error plus problems when rebooting to Windows. Restored from backup run CHKDSK and re-run it - second time it worked. On another server it worked without any issue.
Yeah, I am not going to risk it on a production server.  I am going for the Paragon software I think, in your opinion, do you think this is the best?  Do you install/uninstall anytime you use it on a server since it is only a one seat license?
btw, the server finished yesterday after a little more than 7 hours, was getting a little worried, but the drive is now showing the additional space unallocated in Windows Manager.  
He he, showing additional space as predicted.
I can say that Partition Manager 11 is the best in my list. I say this based on my own experience on resize/repartition/recover experience.
I think you can install/deinstall it if you need though license agreement says - only for single server. But it is possible to uninstall and use it on another machine according to my tests.
If you need my instructions on resize take screen shot of Windows Disk Management and explain where would you like to assign the free space to.
I am assuming once I get the software, it should be pretty straightforward to expanding the C: drive, I have no other partitions.  I wonder how the unallocated space at this point fits into the raid though, now that it is extended, raid 1 should be replicating even that unallocated space now, correct?  I am going to give you the points and if I have any questions I can repost a follow up assuming there is an issue with the expansion most likely using the Paragon software.  Thanks for the help.
As you use hardware RAID1 the changes you do in Windows will be replicated by RAID itself. All you need is to install partitioning tool - run it - in main window right click on C: - select Move\Resize - catch the end of partition (its right border) and drag it to right. So allocating the space to C: this way. Apply changes and resize will complete in few seconds. Done.
Good luck and thanks for points.
Nox
Yeah, I was just think in terms of raid 1 and the unallocated space namely.  I am sure even though in my computer the c: drive only shows 34gb that is still replicating the unallocated space over the two drives too.
I bought the paragon software, worked like a charm, I was able to resize the C: partition with the unallocated space.  I then was able to increase the database size of my exchange server.  Thanks for the help.



thanks for feedback. Have a nice weekend
Nox