Compaq Smart Array 431, how to expand partition?

Steve

Lifer
May 2, 2004
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My boss is worried that the Smart Array 431 won't support a resize of the array. The server in question has a three-drive RAID 5 array, plus a spare. These were 18GB drives, they're now 36. It's in a ProLiant server, can't remember which model.

I put the last drive in today, let it rebuild, what does one do to make use of this extra available disk space, both at the controller and OS level? The OS is Windows 2000 Server.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
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why are you even using something this ancient? raid 1 some newer drives for more total space, and greater speed and reliability.
Personally I don't think there is ever a reason to use raid5.

Raid0 is for extreme speed on gaming machines with low reliability.
Raid1 is for data storage with same write speed, read speed = number of drives, and there is perfect data safety (you can take each drive and put it in a different computer and it has all the data)
RAID1+0 allows you to go beyond the size of the max current drive and multiplying read and write speed with the same reliability.

When you get into needing to store data several times the size of a single largest drive (more then 3TB today) you can save costs by using raid5/6... but at that point raid6 makes far more sense for data safety reasons. OS based too so you are not limited to a controller and to eliminate the single point of failure the controller provides.

And windows 2k?
 

Steve

Lifer
May 2, 2004
15,945
11
81
Thanks for the lecture on RAID, but I already knew all of the above.

Any answers to my questions?
 

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
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0
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Call me old fashioned. In such a case, I just delete the old array and create a new one, then restore the system from backups. You've got less than 36 GB of data to restore. Shouldn't take long.

I've use Acronis' True Image Server backup program (Trial version) for such things. No matter what backup program you use, be sure you have at least two known-good backups.

It would have been much safer to leave the old drives in, make the backups, install the new drives, and do the restore to the new drives. That way, if something went wrong, you could have popped the old drives back in and been back in business.