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OS in RAID 5 is out of space

V

vincecrz

Junior Member
Hi Guys,

I have a concern about one of our client's server. I an not keen into server management especially on RAID. It so happen that we need to handle this though its not our support coverage.

Let me give some of the info that I hope will further help:

Dell PowerEdge T300,
Raid 5 (Add in SATA raid card with Hot Plug HDD, 3-4HDD), PERC6i
3 160GB 3.5" 7.2rpm SATA 2 HDD

I wish I could attach a screen shot from the disk management for you to have detailed overview. The C: drive needs to have more space on it as you can see on the picture.

The disk management says:

C: partition BASIC HEALTHY 12gb 1% free
D partition BASIC HEALTHY 284gb 94% free
E: partition BASIC HEALTHY 465gb 99% free

and down below

Disk 0 <E drive>
Disk 1 <C and D drives>


Here's my plan:

First, I will clone the C drive for me to have a backup because I don't want to mess up the server. Because as far as to my readings, its not possible to clone both C and D into a single drive considering a RAID 5, right?

Secondly, I will be using a server partition software to increase the size of C.
Possibly, a)to get more space from D, b)create partition, c) then merge it to C later. (I already tried this procedure to my standalone PC, but I'm not sure if it does apply similarly to a server 2003 with that RAID 5 thing).

Guys, as you can see, I am more only to stand alone computers, and have little knowledge on servers. I'm looking for the easiest way to re-size that C drive which has only 12 GB, that doesn't even require me to open the box hopefully.

I would appreciate for your inputs. Thanks.

Vince 😉
 
Sounds like a valid plan as long as your filesystem resize disc supports the RAID controller in the system. That and shrinking and moving the D volume can take a significant amount of time depending on the speed of the drives.
 
What OS are you running ? I have a t300 right next to me and if you are running windows 2008, it might be easier.

Also depending on where your partition are created. If it was one big raid 5 container in perc6 and you have windows make the partition, it might be an resizing issue.

If your partition are actual raid container, 3 container that is off the perc6, you can't really just ghost in and ghost out because you'll need to resize the containers.

Your math doesn't add up, 160x3 -160 = 320gb (raid5), there are other drives there or something.

You can't get 465gb out of 160x3 with a 284gb d drive in addition to it.
 
Thanks Guys for the suggestions.

Nothinman, we can take time on that, the client can afford downtime. Thanks.

rsutoratosu, they are using Win 2003 r2. Not sure "If it was one big raid 5 container in perc6" and not sure as well if partition made thru windows.

My only concern is to add a little of space on the OS drive C. I will be reading on the link and get back if I have more questions.

Thanks again.

vince
 
well, depending on the how the raid was configured, you may not be able to add the little space you want to the c drive.. if you can take snap shots of the perc setup.. in windows if the dell server manager isn't install, u can install it, look for dell open manage server on their website, usually its install and look for raid configs
 
Im lost here...

You said the system has 3 x 160gb drives.. => 480gb of total hdd space.


You then said u found these partitions?
C: partition BASIC HEALTHY 12gb 1% free
D partition BASIC HEALTHY 284gb 94% free
E: partition BASIC HEALTHY 465gb 99% free

Now can you tell me where the other drives are hidden?
Cuz there is no way you can have that many free space.

Also RAID5 requires a minimum of 3 hdd's for it to work.
You can not get Raid5 working on less then 3 drives.

rsutoratosu said:
Your math doesn't add up, 160x3 -160 = 320gb (raid5), there are other drives there or something.

You can't get 465gb out of 160x3 with a 284gb d drive in addition to it.
Click to expand...

+1

there has to be more drives somewhere he's not listing.
 
Last edited:
aigomorla said:
Im lost here...

You said the system has 3 x 160gb drives.. => 480gb of total hdd space.


You then said u found these partitions?
C: partition BASIC HEALTHY 12gb 1% free
D partition BASIC HEALTHY 284gb 94% free
E: partition BASIC HEALTHY 465gb 99% free

Now can you tell me where the other drives are hidden?
Cuz there is no way you can have that many free space.

Also RAID5 requires a minimum of 3 hdd's for it to work.
You can not get Raid5 working on less then 3 drives.



+1

there has to be more drives somewhere he's not listing.
Click to expand...

If his OP is right about C: and D: being on the same volume then it doesn't really matter what other drives are there in the system, he just needs to shrink D:, move it down and then grow C:.
 
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