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Robert Perez-CoronaFlag for United States of America

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Hp Proliant DL360 G7 Hard Drive Backplane Kit install with ESXi RAID 5

Hello,

I have an Hp Proliant DL 360 G7 running ESXi (VSphere 5.0.0) on a RAID 5 array configuration. I currently have 4 drives (3 online and 1 offline spare). Since the 4 bays on top are empty, I purchased the hard drive backplane kit along with 1 cage with allows you to insert 2 drives. However, I will only be adding one drive.

In short, I want to:
1.      Add backplane kit with cage
2.      Add 1 SAS HDD
3.      Add this SAS HDD to the current RAID ARRAY without wiping out anything – IMPORTANT! – I can’t afford to lose any data as I have very important production VM’s running on here.

How can I add the HDD backplane kit/cage, the 1 SAS HDD to the RAID, without losing data?

I assume this would appear in my VMWare ESXi host as a new datastore under storage once I fire the machine up?But I can’t stress enough..How can I add the drive without losing my raid array/data.

PS. I have my VM’s backed up to tape

Please help soonest

Thx
t
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i believe i do have the battery...but I assume in order to expand the array I will enter the ACUCLI right after POST, correct? and then expand it from in there?
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If you have the HP version of VMware 5.x then after booting it to ESX you add the disk and use ACUCLI as per http://communities.vmware.com/thread/439643?start=0&tstart=0 (last post in thread).

If you've got an earlier version of ESX or the HP tools aren't installed then boot SmartStart CD instead and run the ACU GUI from there.
i forgot the key sequence to enter the array configuration menu..but i assume this is what you refer to?

Or should i download the offline ACU from the link below and boot to this i may not be able to expand via the array controller bios?

i also heard that vsphere 5 will allow me to increase the vmfs
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oh ok..

I have a SmartStart CD...i guess this is what you are referring to..and no I dont have an Hp version of esx...i downloaded and installed a copy of vsphere i downloaded from vmware myself.

So i guess i will use the smartstart cd..or the Hp offline acu cd and to expand the raid...then from vmware i can grow the VMFS volume to occupy the newly added space (Choose "Increase..." from the datastore's properties menu...

last but not least..

If all goes well. i should not loose any data correct?
i have by VM's backed up..but i dont plan to even think about restoring them..i am in a live environment and data lost would pretty be the end of me.
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i booted up to the ACU but i do not see an option to expand the array. I see the unassinged drive. I thinking this has to do with the version of the smartstart software? its 8.70.9.0

i downnloaded the acu util from hp directly and it looks to be a newer version..

but again i do not see the option to expand..i can manage spares...but no expanding!!
could it be that i dont have the battery? i thought i saw a "battery" sign when i opened the server
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says 0

so my only option is to create a separate logical drive(raid 1) since i have two drives handy and then create a separate data store in vmware?

other wise i have to wipe out the array controller and start form scratch :/ ?
i ended up creating a separate array with a raid 1


can i have one online spare for two arrays?

if so how can i do this

pls help i have my servers down..thx a million
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I selected the first array, then in "manage spares", I enabled it as a spare.

However, I believe when I highlighted the second array, then selected "manage spares" i was not able to select the spare. I did not see an option to select the check mark. I see it, but I can't select it.

This is what my memory tells me. I could have being overlooking something. But im sure I gave up last night for a reason and simply left the spare for only 1 of the 2 arrays

thx
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