Hard disk drive (HDD) Substitutions. This brief examines the method to upgrade existing small capacity HDDs to new, modern, large capacity HHDs in an exist RAID and OS configuration.

I need to upgrade a pair of X Gbyte mirrored drives to something larger. Can you suggest an easy way to do this without loosing data? I would prefer not to reinstall the OS and apps on the new drives.

I installed another drive in our server and added it to the existing array. Why is the drive size in Windows is the same?
The newly added space after the array is rebuilt, is added to the "Logical Drive" the array controller presents to the Operating System, like a blank hard drive. It is up to you to tell the OS what to do with this new "Free Space", which you can view with the Windows Disk Manager. Here is the Microsoft procedure to extend your exist partition into that free space. Of course you configuration my not be suitable for this procedure, say your have a C: and D: on the same Logical Volume and you need a larger C:. In this case you will need to either backup and restore in a new configuration OR you can use our copy of VolumeManager from the link at the end of this article.

Issue

Like the rest of the technology industry, SCSI hard disk drives continue to evolve to meet the ever-increasing needs of the enterprise. While technology advances are inevitable, the rapid pace of change can quickly make older, small capacity products difficult or impossible to justify holding on to and not upgrading or replacing due to reliability concerns. Substitution of newer technology, much larger capacity products is a natural consequence of ever-shortening product cycles coupled with multi-year service obligations.

NOTE: Any configurations using the HP Disk Array require the exact capacity hard disk drive for replacement.
Click HERE for Related HP document

These HP Disk Arrays Controllers were last sold in August 1997.

Answer

When fulfilling a service spares order, customers may desire to receive a hard disk drive that is a much larger capacity from their original. Substitute devices are necessary as older technology products are reaching end-of-life (3-5 years) and are no longer fulfilling the customers capacity requirements. For example, a customers has an Email Server that has simply run out of space. This is the case for the majority of customers. With qualification and testing, e⁴ Services Inc.com is able to offer a range of larger faster solutions for every server platform. The differences between the original and substituted product may be in spin speed, capacity, interface, or all of these. e⁴ addresses these factors with the procedures described below:

SCOPE
This document outlines the procedures of expanding an “active” volume within the Windows 2000 operating system. Though this document deals specifically with Proliant products and their hardware RAID solutions, the general outline could be followed on any machine. Additionally, this document focuses on Microsoft’s utility DISKPART to expand the drive. “Expanding” refers to the action of increasing the size of a volume to obtain more usable space; e.g. increasing a 4Gbyte drive “C:” to 72Gbtyes. Other utilities are available and should be used according to their respective instructions.

PREREQUISTIES
The following requirements are specified in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article – Q304736, “How to Extend the Partition of a Cluster Shared Disk”. Though the article refers to storage available to Clusters, the document’s guidelines apply to non-clustered systems as well:

The additional disk space must appear as free space at the end of the existing drive, and it must be directly behind the existing volume that is to be extended. THIS IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THIS LIMITATION.
EXAMPLE: In viewing the Windows Disk Manager, your expanding disk shows a "Disk 0". It shows the typical small Compaq or HP setup partitions (no drive letter), a logical drive C: (may be holding your OS) and a logical drive E: (may be holding your data). Drive E: is the drive that can be expanded. It is at the end of the array drive and the new space to be added will fall immediately after that. If "C:" is you expansion intent, then you can still follow this procedure, except use Windows Disk Manager to join a new partition you create with the current "C:" making one logical drive letter out of 2 physical partitions.
The extension must not rely on software fault tolerance to combine the existing partition and free space.
The disk signatures of the existing drive remain the same.
Use the Physical Disk Resource type for the disk. If a third-party manufacturer provides the disk resource, you must contact that manufacturer for information about how to increase disk space.

PRE-SETUP
Use the following procedure to setup the unit prior to expanding the drive:

First, and foremost, have a recent backup of all data. This procedure is intensive and essentially causes a regeneration of the RAID structure on the drive being expanded.
Ensure the latest release of the Operating System. This includes any service packs and patches.
Update any device driver specific to the storage device
Update any configuration utility needed for the coming expansion. In HP’s case, this is the Array Configuration Utility.
Update all system ROMs and Array Controller ROMs.
Run a diagnostic report on the storage and drive subsystem. In this case, use the Array Diagnostic Utility. This report should be examined to determine if any of the drives may be approaching a failing state, i.e. high read or write error counts. Drives may be on their way to failing but not quite dysfunctional enough to have triggered a threshold alarm. (The coming expansion rewrites the RAID striping, so it is best to be forewarned of any issues that could cause failures).
NOTE: It is very important that the additional drives to be added are in “pristine” condition. In other words, they should contain no data on them at all from previous setups. If necessary, use the manufacturer’s guidelines on erasing the drives. The following is a quick guideline for erasing drives in an HP system. (The directions below are best done on a non-production server if one is available).

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Be sure you have the latest bios loaded on your Server as well as the array controller.

Then you can use the Array Configuration Utility (ACU)from your Smart Start CD (recommended) or download the ACU for Windows:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/19658.html

You will also need to download the DiskPart.exe utility from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/

A Acrobat PDF format of the Guide for the ACU:
ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/supportinformation/techpubs/user_reference_guides/239449-004_rev4_us.pdf

Also if you need more options for manipulating your partitions or you have a situation where this procedure will not work, we have available our volume license version of a Partition Manager for Servers that will do the job. This is a free version that should not be distributed and is for you personal one time use only:
http://e4services.homestead.com/files/czjxynrt37.zip

Also if you need it, a PDF version of the complete MS document that walks you throught this entire process:
ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/servers/proliantstorage/drives-enclosures/Procedures%20of%20expanding%20active%20volume%20with%20W2000.pdf

Summary
Say you have two drives in a mirror. You and then after it has completed the rebuild, you insert the second 36 or 72GB drive and have it rebuild the mirror. Your mirror has not changed yet. Once that has completed rebuilding, now you are ready to "expand" the unallocated space into your existing array. Then you perform the O/S expansion.

You take one drive out (simulate a failure) and insert a new larger capacity drive.
Let this new drive re-mirror (rebuild). This will take some time, hours depending on the size. Wait until the drive is shows ready in the ACU our it's front lights.
After you are SURE the rebuild is complete, take out the second older small drive (simulate a failure) and insert the second new larger capacity drive.y drive rebuild the mirror. Your mirror has not changed yet.
Again let this new drive re-mirror (rebuild). Wait until the drive is shows ready in the ACU our it's front lights. At this point your mirror has not changed.
If you have other than the RAID1 Mirror, continue on replacing and rebuilding until all are replaced.
Once that has completed rebuilding, now you are ready to "expand" the unallocated space into your existing array. In our example, Windows Disk Manager will show the "Disk 0" with unallocated space after the "E:". You may use the offline Array Manager using the SmartStart CD on the Proliant line, but the ROM base Array Manager of the Proliant and the Netserver will not proform "expansion".
Lastly, if you are expanding a logical drive that holds the OS, the O/S expansion requires the DiskPart.exe, the key to the whole process. Be sure to read up on it. There are a few gotchas to look out for:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?InCC_hdn=true&Catalog=LCID=1033&CDID=EN-US-KB&PRODLISTSRC=ON&withinResults=&QuerySource=gASr_Query&Product=win2000&Queryc=diskpart.exe&Query=diskpart.exe&KeywordType=ALL&maxResults=25&Titles=false&numDays=&InCC=on
This is a good place to start to familiarize yourself with what to watch out for.

This information is subject to change without notice and is provided "as is" with no warranty. e4ServicesInc.com shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages in connection with the use of this material.

Click HERE for Related HP document "HP Hard Disk Drive Qualification"