asked on

More space for Poweredge 2650

I'm looking at space options for our Exchange server. We have a poweredge 2650. I'm not a big hardware person so please bear with me.

I'm looking at the array manager and it looks like there are 5 discs, but one is a backup disc. They are 33.92GBs each. Very small I know, this server was in place when I came here and has been here for a couple years.

Is there anyway to add more space to this server? Another disc? I have tried an external USB drive, but it's really slow.
The reason I'm looking into this is that our brick level backups are taking almost 14 hours to run, I would like to be able to do an RSG if needed, but due to space issues, that's not an option.

Any suggestions are much appreciated!

Thank you in advance

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

rindi

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

Carrie Miles

ASKER

Unfortunately, brick level backups is my only option at the moment since I would not be able to do an RSG if needed.

I will check with Dell.

Thank you

Carrie Miles

ASKER

So Dell said that I can get new drives, but the tech was not that great. He didn't really want to get into detail about how to change the, etc. Does anyone know of a document that gives detailed instructions how to replace drives in an array?

What do I do with the exchange data if I would swap out the drives?

Thank you

Carrie Miles

ASKER

I have read that an external SATA drive would be good to copy all the exchange data and then put back after the drives are rebuilt?
If something like that would work, where do I put the SATA drive? I'm not seeing any slots available anywhere?

SOLUTION

SysExpert

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

SysExpert

RAID expansion on a 2650 - - Depends on the RAID controller and FIrmware.

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22635932/Dell-PowerEdge-2650-Drive-Upgrade.html

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21393108/Expanding-RAID-volume-on-Dell-2650.html

I hope this helps !

SysExpert

also

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22079313/Want-to-add-more-RAID-storage-to-Dell-Poweredge-2600.html

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21751705/Dell-2650-PERC-3-DI-Raid-5-WON'T-REBUILD-arrrghhhhhhh.html

Carrie Miles

ASKER

Unfortunately I'm not hardware savvy enough to understand what needs to be done at this point. This is all very confusing since I'm not sure where to look at everything, controller, firmware, etc.

I wish I could find step by step instructions on what exactly needs to be done on the hardware itself and what needs to be done with exchange. Unfortunately I don't think I will find that.

But thank you both for your suggestions.

Carrie Miles

ASKER

I do have a hotspare avaiable that I could use to gain space? But how would I go about doing that? Do I just initialize it?

rindi

To use the hotspare you'd have to use the RAID utility to disable it as spare and then add it to the array. As I don't know the Dell Utility I can't give proper details, and it is better not to use it. In Raid 5, if a disk goes down, your array is then highly in danger, as if another disk goes down you loose all data. Having a hot spare reduces this risk greatly. I think since you aren't hardware savvy, I'd get a consultant to do the job, as too many things can go wrong.

Using eSata for backup would be luxury, but if you don't have a SATA controller it's probably a lot easier to use a USB case where you can put a disk inside. Then you can use the software I mentioned earlier, bootit-ng, which you can use to make an image of the partitions of your internal disks. In case of disaster you just need to restore that image.

Carrie Miles

ASKER

Getting a consultant is not an option, we are a very small company.

I will contact Dell again and see what they say.