Add More Drives To An exisitng Raid 5 Array

[FN-GM]

Hi,

 

We are running Dell Poweredge 2900's.

 

After a server alterations we have 400gb spare storage on our Proxy Server that simply isnt need. I would like to removed these drives and place into another identical 2900 with the same drives that is running low on storage.

 

Can i simple add more drives to a Raid 5 array then use a utility to expand the partition into the new not allocated space?

 

Thanks

 

Z

[Geoff]

What OS? If it's Linux, yes. You can do this out of the box. If it's Windows it depends on your RAID hardware and it's support tools. You will also need 3rd party software to extend the partition on the RAID volume once you've sorted out the hardware side of things. As Windows wont do that on it's own.

[SYNACK]

If you have a reasonable hardware RAID controller this should not be an issue, just add the disks and go into the config utility to expand the virtual disk to include the new disks. It will take a while to expand though.

 

As to extending the partitions you can do this easily without thirdparty tools live in windows using the expand command in the diskpart command line utility as long as the partition is on a basic volume. The extention of the filesystem is instant and painless.

[FN-GM]

Thanks Guys

[fiza]

I know this is an old thread but did you do this and how did it go? I am planning something similar with my 2900. I have existing 3 drives in it and want to add a 4th identical drive without losing the data thats on the RAID already.

[FN-GM]

I know this is an old thread but did you do this and how did it go? I am planning something similar with my 2900. I have existing 3 drives in it and want to add a 4th identical drive without losing the data thats on the RAID already.

 

It was really easy. I put in the disks and then in the Dell OpenManage software i expanded the Virtual Disk and then expanded the partition in Windows. It took no time at all.

[fiza]

Thanks thats a relief!!! Did you have 1 partition only? We have 3 partitions on the RAID 5 array that I want to add the extra disk to. Will I be able to expand each partition by a little or do I just expand 1 of them? Its our MIS Server (we use SIMS) and Ive been reliably informed that adding an extra disk will give us a performance boost.

[plexer]

If you chop up the new space into partitions of its own you may be able to expand you others into their own new space.

 

Ben