Comments on: Proliant server hard disk upgrade http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/proliant-server-hard-disk-upgrade/ Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:45:14 +0000 hourly 1 By: maan http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/proliant-server-hard-disk-upgrade/#comment-99756 maan Sat, 03 Dec 2011 11:52:12 +0000 #comment-99756 Have an HP ProLiant DL380 G7 with 2 146GB drives that are mirrored. Using W2008 server R2.
I want to upgrade the drives , is it possible to upgrade without having to do a new full install.

]]> By: smachead http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/proliant-server-hard-disk-upgrade/#comment-55407 smachead Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:18:55 +0000 #comment-55407 This sort of confirmed my gut instinct, that swapping the drives around would end up giving me the same volume size but with a lot of diskspace inaccessible on the new drives.
I’ll look into breaking the mirror, removing a drive for safe keeping then try backing up the system & data. followed by a restore to a new drive.
Thanks Guys
.

]]> By: pressler2904 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/proliant-server-hard-disk-upgrade/#comment-55383 pressler2904 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:11:52 +0000 #comment-55383 Oh, and Schmidtw – the boot info should copy, that’s not really the issue, the issue is (as mentioned above) the original array metadata which specifies the smaller volume size.

]]> By: pressler2904 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/proliant-server-hard-disk-upgrade/#comment-55382 pressler2904 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:09:46 +0000 #comment-55382 The easiest way to do this successfully would be to create a backup of the entire system (using your favorite backup software), replace BOTH disks and restore, indicating that during the restore process the volume should expand to the designated new size (probably the entire disk, but not necessarily).
If you remove one drive (whether the mirror was created on a RAID card or via the O/S) and replace it with a larger drive, the RAID metadata on the existing array member (the original, smaller disk) will be copied over to the new drive indicating the original smaller volume size.

If you **break the array** (giving you two independent identical drives / systems), remove one drive, image the existing system to a larger drive, add a second identical larger drive and then create the array, you should also be OK. And of course, if the process fails, you have one of the original smaller disks in reserve which can be used to re-create the original array at the original size.

No matter what you do, it ain’t gonna be pretty, nor is there a Q&D (Quick & Dirty) way to do this…

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