How to add additional hard drive in to a Dell PowerEdge r720

Add the new drives HOT, then use OpenManage Server Administrator VIB (if you have it installed) to Reconfigure the 3-disk RAID 5 to convert it to a 5-disk RAID 5, or EVEN BETTER, to a 5-disk RAID 6.

If you don't have the OMSA VIB installed, you will need to reboot the machine at some point to do this - either to install OMSA or to do the Reconfigure from the CTRL-R utility for the controller.

It's fairly straightforward, pop the drives in boot into the raid controller, create a new virtual disk select the RAID u want to set up. U can have several RAID arrays on a controller.

It's fairly straightforward, pop the drives in boot into the raid controller, create a new virtual disk select the RAID u want to set up. U can have several RAID arrays on a controller.

Unless I misunderstood, he wants to add drives to his RAID 5 to make it bigger, not create a new VD.

You can install OMSA from here

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/4/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=GYP4R

Then fallow PowerEdgeTech advises

I was told at one time that you can not have a VD more than 2 TB is that correct?

Tom Cieslik,

Do I install the OMSA on to my Pc, or on to a Virtual Device?

Switch to UEFI, that supports drives greater than 2TB opposed to standard BIOS. Be careful though.

You CAN have a VD larger than 2TB - it is NOT a limitation of the RAID controller.

You don't need to switch to UEFI. That is only if you need to BOOT to a disk larger than 2TB.

You WILL need to convert a DATA disk larger than 2TB to GPT, unless ESXi can manage the conversion or is already using GPT.

OMSA has to be installed on the physical hardware. There is an OMSA VIB for ESXi (or you can use Dell's ESXi distro with it already on there).

Is there a way to backup the RAID configurations before making changes in the event I need to go back?

No, there isn't a way to back up the RAID configuration - the way that works is you back up the OS, so if you mess up the RAID, then you just reconfigure the RAID and restore from backup.

When you say OS, are we talking about the VMware OS?

Yes, or a backup of the VM's that could be easily restored to a newly reinstalled VMware host.

I will try it this weekend and let you all know how it works out.

I'm going to keep this open until Monday.

Thanks for all your inputs.

PowerEdgeTech,

So basically I should Image the r720 server on to external Device?

yes, that would work

Sorry guys, I had a family emergency and wasn't able to apply the new hard drive.

However, I am planning on doing it Tomorrow evening.

Are there anyone on this site after hours, let's say 9pm thru 11pm on a Friday?

Just in case run in to a problem.

It would appear that I don't OMSA installed.

Can I install this while the users are on?

Yes, you can install OMSA with no ill effects for the system or users. A reboot is not usually required.

I looked up the instructions on installing the OMSA and it appears that I will need to reboot the Host when I'm done in order to complete the installation of the OMSA on the EXSi.  Looks like will complete this this evening at about 9pm.

However, wants I do get the OMSA installed the EXSi, what are the steps to extend the storage space on the EXSi via the OMSA?

I have not been successful with installing the OMSA.

I'm getting an error message, "Could not download from depot at /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/cross_dell-openmanage-esxi_8.4.0.ESXi510-0000.vib/index.xml, skipping (('/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/cross_dell-openmanage-esxi_8.4.0.ESXi510-0000.vib/index.xml', '', "[Errno 4] IOError: <urlopen error [Errno 20] Not a directory: '/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/cross_dell-openmanage-esxi_8.4.0.ESXi510-0000.vib/index.xml'>"))
        url = /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/cross_dell-openmanage-esxi_8.4.0.ESXi510-0000.vib/index.xml
 Please refer to the log file for more details."

Any feedback?

it appears that I will need to reboot the Host when I'm done in order to complete the installation of the OMSA on the EXSi

My apologies ... I forgot you were on vmware (Windows does not require a reboot).

I'm closing this, because I believe I cannot go any further due to my EXSi Server needs to be patched.

I'm going to open a new forum in order to get help on patching my EXSi server.

Thanks for all your help in this matter..