Compaq 3200 manual Online Capacity Expansion or Extension, Disk Drive Upgrades

E-21

Online Capacity Expansion or Extension

In certain cases, the Smart Array 3200 Controller and the Array Configuration Utility also facilitate storage capacity changes online, without downing the server or storage system. These cases are:

■Windows NT1 or NetWare operating system (NetWare 3.11 not supported) and

■Hot-plug drives

Because the Array Configuration Utility reconfigures the Smart Array 3200

Controller, online reconfiguration can only take place if the Array Configuration

Utility is running in the same environment as the normal server applications.

Hot-plug drives are required for online storage changes because non-hot-plug drives require that the server be powered-down to add or remove the drive. All ProLiant servers and storage systems support hot-plug drives.

Disk Drive Upgrades

Additional storage space can be gained with the same number of physical drives in a fault-tolerant configuration by replacing these drives with higher-capacity drives. By replacing the drives one at a time, the data on the new drive is recreated from redundant information on the remaining drives. After one new drive has been rebuilt, the next drive can be replaced. After all drives have been replaced and rebuilt, the additional capacity on each drive can be used by increasing an existing logical drive or adding a new logical drive. The Array Configuration Utility automatically recognizes the unused space and guides you through the procedures to use it.

1Online capacity extension under Windows NT requires version 5.0 or later.

Compaq Smart Array 3200 Controller Reference Guide