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Expanding/Transitioning Times
We just got in our AX150 DP system and are in the process of setting it up. We created a Disk Pool of 4 500gb drives in our initial set up (1.3 TB formatted storage) We ordered a few more 500gb drives to expand our storage. We put in one drive to test how expanding a disk pool and virtual drive works. Right now, after 48 hours, it is still expanding with a progress of 53%. Is this normal? It seems rather long. Thank you.
- Dennis, thank you for your response. We are just using Navisphere Express. At the moment, these drives are idle with no disk access going on at all. I was just wondering if it was normal to see it taking this long. We only added 1 500gb drive to our 4 drive array.
- I've got a question concerning this topic. Same situation here, except for my drive expansion is completed. So now it shows I have a 2.7 TB virtual drive. Problem is, Windows Server 2003 doesn't see the additional space. It still thinks it's only a 1TB drive. How do I expand it for the windows server side? Thanks in advance for any help.
- Before I explain the part about expanding the partition, the first question is; has your disk been converted to GPT?
To check this, go into the disk management, right click on disk 1 (or whichever disk number was expanded) and check if there's a "convert to GPT" or "Convert to MBR".
If it's the earlier (GPT (meaning that it's currently MBR)), you're looking at backing up your data, delete the partition in disk management, right click the disk and select to convert to GPT. Now you can create a single partition of max size and restore your data.
If your disk is currently already GPT (in other words, right clicking it says to convert (back) to MBR), then you can use the steps in this document to extend the partition.
This reason this GPT vs MBR is important is that an MBR disk cannot extend to beyond the 2TB marker, and GPT can (it has raised the cap to 18EB (see here)).
Edit: you do need a minimum of Windows 2003 SP1 to support GPT (x86 or x64 doesn't matter, as long as it's SP1 or later).
Message Edited by Dev Mgr on 10-16-2007 08:20 AM
Dennise458
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Posted June 27th, 2007 16:00
Also, if regular IO is going on, it'll be slower than if the system is sitting relatively idle.
I usually recommand to start this on a Friday (most customers have significantly less IO in the weekend) and see how far it has gotten by Monday morning.
On the CX-series with the full version of Navisphere you can change the priority of the expansion on the fly. This would allow you to up the priority in the evening and lower it in the morning to lessen the impact on your production IO, but shorten (somewhat) the expansion time.
I can't find an AX-system in our lab with the full version of Navisphere to see if the AX-series with the full Navisphere Manager option (upgrade available via sales), to see if the AX would allow you to regulate the expansion priority as well.