Resize SBS 2003 system partition

[Fardringle]

I apologize in advance if this is too long. I'm trying to be thorough. Look to the end of the post for a "short" version.

One of my clients (a small insurance agency) has a domain controller running Small Business Server 2003 on a Dell PowerEdge 2800. The server has two 75 GB SCSI hard disks in RAID 1 (mirrored) and split into two partitions with Windows and programs installed on a 25 GB partition and databases, documents, and other stuff on a 50 GB partition. Both partitions are rapidly running out of space (less than 3 GB free on each). I have removed everything that I can find that doesn't actually need to be on the server so it's time to start adding more storage space to the server and I'd like some suggestions on different ways to do this since I deal more with desktops and networking and while I can get around OK in Exchange and Active Directory, I don't really know a lot about the internals of the server OS.

Option 1: Add a big SATA drive and create dynamic links from the biggest space users on the existing partitions to the new drive (or even just a completely new drive letter and configure the 'offending' software to look to the new drive for its data. This is probably the cheapest and easiest, but unfortunately this particular server doesn't have any places to install/mount standard hard drives.

I have a pair of 250 GB SCSI drives from a PowerEdge SC440 that are the same type as the controller in the PowerEdge 2800 and that have very few hours of usage since it is an "emergency backup domain controller" that some particularly persuasive vendor talked this company owner into buying so he could immediately switch over to it if the main DC ever kicks the bucket. (That was a silly purchase for a very small office and even if they ever did need an ERS, it certainly doesn't need RAID 1, but it's only relevant to the discussion since the drives are there and available). That ERS server has been sitting in a closet at the owner's house for years and never even touched so he obviously doesn't really need it and couldn't use it anyway since the file backup on it is never updated. That SC440 can use a simple SATA drive for its storage so the boss can keep it as an emergency backup if he really wants to.

So, for the next few options I can take the two 250 GB SCSI drives and set them up as a second RAID 1 mirror in the server and:

Option 2: Just leave the existing C and D partitions as they are on the 75 GB drives and expand the storage to the 250 GB drives as needed with dynamic links to existing program/data folders. This is a simple solution, but can get complicated with a maze of dynamic links that will have to be maintained as well as the data itself.

Option 4: Move the D drive completely over to the 250 GB drives since most of the new stuff they save (mainly copies of email, property photos, documents, etc. relating to their customers' insurance policies) goes on the D drive and it adds up very quickly. Delete the existing : partition and expand the system (C) partition to fill the existing 75 GB drives. I think this would be the best method overall but also possibly the most work since my limited searching so far says it's not possible to expand the system partition from within SBS 2003, and third-party applications that claim to be able to do it also seem to indicate that it's not safe or reliable. Moving/cloning D to the new drives is no problem, but messing with the system partition (C) makes me nervous since I really don't want to have to completely reinstall the system if I (or Symantec BackupExec) miss something.

Option 5: Talk the owner into forgetting about RAID1 completely and set up both of the 250 GB SCSI drives as separate volumes and spread the big space users out between the two drives with dynamic links from the existing folders on the current C and D drives.

Option 6+: What other suggestions do you have?


Short version: SBS 2003 server is running out of space on the system partition (C) and the data partition (D), which are both on a 75 GB RAID 1 drive array. How can I expand the available space on both partitions without affecting the operating system? I have two 250 GB SCSI drives that I can make use of in the server. I cannot use SATA or IDE drives because there isn't a place to install them in the server case.

 

[tomt4535]

Option 4. Although I don't have much experience with SBS, expanding the C: drive in 2003 isn't very difficult. Once all the data on D has been moved to the new drives, The easiest way is to get a WinPE CD(or a 2008/Win 7 install DVD), and boot the server from that. Then, open a command prompt and use diskpart to expand the partition. Of course you will have backups just in case, but diskpart is safe to use.

 

[imagoon]

Option 4.

Inside a WinPE boot disk:

Use imagex [free from MS] to move the D partition with signatures intact to the 250 gig drives.

Use imagex to snap a copy of the C partition.

Use diskpart to delete the old "d" drive
Then extend both the C and D drives to the new disks.

stuff you need to know:

diskpart
list disk
select disk X [from list disk. It will be a number]
list part
select part Y [from part list. Again a number]
extend
exit

Example below, I don't have freespace on the laptop so...

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: Things

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          238 GB  1024 KB
  Disk 1    Online         1863 GB  1024 KB

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list part

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    OEM                117 MB    31 KB
  Partition 2    Primary            750 MB   118 MB
  Partition 3    Primary            237 GB   868 MB

DISKPART> select part 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> extend

 

[rsutoratosu]

Option 4 but doing it within cloning software.

I done tons of these setups because people do not understand that boot os in a server needs more than 10gbs, if you are familar with ghost, this is a easy 3-4 hours job.

Setup the 250 in raid 1 in the remaining 2 slots, i assume this is a 6 bay pe 2800 rack mount ?

What you would do is ghost partition D (50gb) into new 250gb raid 1 array.
!! Partition to disk transfer

Ghost partition C (25gb) into a file in 250gb raid 1 array
!! partition to file transfer

Ghost file you just created back into the full 74 GB RAID 1 and over write C & D partitions.
!! file to drive transfer

I use ghost a lot so I know it has partition to partition/file/etc features.

Once you boot back up, your 74gb becomes the C again and your 250 is now D.

I assume the 74gb is partitioned in windows and not in the dell controller ?

If it is partition in the dell controller, you'll need to go into the array and delete the 25 and 50 and create a single raid container and make it a booting volume. I think 2800 are perc 3/4 area.

If you dont know ghost well, I wouldn't really attempt it.. plus I dont want you to lose your job

 

[Fardringle]

I have cloned desktops many times, but I've never done it with a server. That's kind of what I was thinking of doing, but I know that with my luck something will go wrong and I'll have to reinstall the server OS (which I really don't want to do).

Thanks for the advice. I'll make sure there are good backups and maybe do this on a weekend when it won't affect the office employees.

 

[imagoon]

You can use ghost and the like, I just prefer to use the MS tools since, while a bit harder to use, they nearly always work without any oddness. I have gotten drive sector alignment issues with other tools. This matters more on a SAN really but yeah.

MS ImageX is the tool that is used to install Windows 7 / 2008 [R2] from the DVD WIM. It is also used for Windows Deployment Services. It is file based meaning it extracts the files and meta data and ignores the size of the partition. It is also used in Windows based "image based backup and restore" so I consider it pretty tried and true.