jtcomstock
asked on
How to extend volume size
I have a client running SBS. They have a RAID 1 volume for their system and a RAID 5 volume for their data. I recently added a 300GB drive to the RAID 5 volume and reconfigured the logical to recognize it. Computer Management now shows 300GB of unallocated space.
What I'd like to do is extend the volume to pick up the 300GB into the current data volume. I see in computer management that I have the extend volume option, but when I read the help notes, it says this cannot be used on a RAID-5 volume.
I'm assuming this will not work and that I'll have to recreate the volume, though I'd much rather extend the volume.
Any experiences to share for this one?
Jason
What I'd like to do is extend the volume to pick up the 300GB into the current data volume. I see in computer management that I have the extend volume option, but when I read the help notes, it says this cannot be used on a RAID-5 volume.
I'm assuming this will not work and that I'll have to recreate the volume, though I'd much rather extend the volume.
Any experiences to share for this one?
Jason
Lee W, MVP
I wouldn't do it. Yes, both volumes are under RAID, but you can recovery data from a broken RAID... if you extend the volume, that's adding complexity and making things more difficult (and costly) to recover if it ever becomes necessary.
ASKER
I'm leaning towards backing it up, deleting the volume, recreating the volume and then restoring the data.
What do you think?
What do you think?
That doesn't change my mind about the increased complexity. I think doing this is a bad idea. It would probably work fine ... until it doesn't... and then you've really got problems.
ASKER
Not sure if we are on the same page. Instead of extending the volume. I'm looking to delete the volume and then recreate it to include the additional capacity. I'd prefer just to extend the existing volume, but the help notes say I can do this on RAID 5.
Jason
Jason
Oh, ok, I thought you were trying to create two RAIDs and use Windows to span the volumes...
In that case, is this hardware RAID or Software RAID? If it's hardware RAID, your controller has to support this - and then the process depends on the controller. If this is software RAID, I would say backup and reconfigure in large part because I avoid software RAIDs whenever possible (especially software raid 5).
In that case, is this hardware RAID or Software RAID? If it's hardware RAID, your controller has to support this - and then the process depends on the controller. If this is software RAID, I would say backup and reconfigure in large part because I avoid software RAIDs whenever possible (especially software raid 5).
ASKER
Its hardware RAID on a Dell Poweredge 2900. The data volume is using the RAID 5 array. The system volume is on its own RAID 1 array. The drive has already been incorproated into the logical array and shows as unallocated space in disk management. I stopped when I read in the help notes that RAID 5 is not support, however the extend volume command is available to me.
Jason
Jason
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ASKER
I did experiment on my server. I had recently added another disk to my RAID 5 array and reconfigured it. I had not yet extended the volume and decided to give the Extend Volume option a try. It worked, but what's interesting is that disk management shows that I have multiple blocks of the drive assigned to the volume. In My Computer I see the data volume as larger.
What was throwing me off was that the help notes said you can't do this on a RAID 5, but either I'm not reading it correctly or it doesn't apply in this situation. The server appears to be running fine, so I will proceed with the client, after I get a good backup.
Jason
What was throwing me off was that the help notes said you can't do this on a RAID 5, but either I'm not reading it correctly or it doesn't apply in this situation. The server appears to be running fine, so I will proceed with the client, after I get a good backup.
Jason