Setting up Raid 1 on Dell PE1750 need help!

[WebHead]

I have a PE1750 with 2 36GB drives. The very first thing I did was to boot the server to the Server Assistant CD and off through the wizard I went. I chose Raid 1 and then when it prompted me for disk size (or something like that) I entered 6GB. Then the wizard completed, asked for the Windows 2003 server cd and installed server. Everything appeared to be fine except when I went into My Computer or Windows Disk Management I have only a 6GB drive and 30GB unallocated I am in desperate need for someone to provide step by step instructions so that I may get this server up and running correctly. The reason I entered 6GB was that I was thinking of having a 6GB partition for the OS and the rest for data. The wizard never asked me again for disk partitions sizes or anything. What am I doing incorrectly, I am a newbie setting this up. Help! )

 

[Smilin]

Whelp, sounds like you have the 6GB for your OS right. Just gotta allocate that 30GB for data. You've made it to disk management to see this so you're almost there.

Just right click in that unallocated space and create a new volume.

Don't be afraid to hit the help files in disk manager. The help files in 2003 rock.

 

[Smilin]

Also, you can setup your raid by right clicking on an existing (your 6GB) volume and selecting create mirror. It will then ask you to specify that other 36GB drive to create the mirror on.

Again, don't be afraid to rtfm on this

 

[WebHead]

Yes but thats setting up for software raid, I am configuring hardware raid. Dont I need to do this through Dell's Array Manager?

 

[Smilin]

Yes, for hardware raid you'll do that through the Dell/Veritas Array manager. For Raid 1 you should be able to do it on the fly without any reload or anything. Just don't mirror the blank drive over the top of the one with data

 

[WebHead]

I went through the setup program but after its done, how do I know for sure that the drive is mirrored? It does not show in Disk management.

 

[Smilin]

It won't. The OS will only be aware of one drive.

You should be able to tell in a couple of ways:

The Dell/Veritas portion of disk manager should tell you.
You can jump into your Perc controllers bios with a hotkey during post and look.
During Post when the perc controller bios is initializing it should tell you how the containers are setup.

 

[WebHead]

Should I just set up the entire C drive for the mirror and not bother with any partitions for the OS?

 

[Smilin]

Ideally if you have two physical drives you want this:

Both 36GB drives in a mirror (raid 1) and presented to the OS as one large 36GB logical drive.

On that logical drive within the OS you want it as a basic disk and split into two partitions, one for OS and one for data.



I think I may have mistook you earlier. If you have a 6GB mirror/container setup already, you may need to create a new container that presents a second logical drive to the OS that is 30GB in size. It's a bit of a goofy config that I've not done before but I believe the Perc controller should be able to do it.

Ya gotta be careful interchanging terms like container/partition and disk/logical disk. I'm easily confused.

 

[WebHead]

I will give it a shot again in the morning. Thanks I guess I make all the changes in the Array Manager then?

 

[Smilin]

Should be able to yes.

If it won't let you do a second container then just scrap the drives from either Perc BIOS or the Server Assistanct CD and start over.

 

[WebHead]

Will do I will let you know what happens in the morning! Thanks )