Integrated HP NetRAID Controller Config. Guide

Chapter 7 Preparing for Online Capacity Expansion
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Partition and Format a Drive that Contains Windows NT
Sometimes it is desirable to have the network operating system reside on a disk
array. The advantage is that the NOS resides on a redundant drive.
Virtual sizing can be used with a disk array that is used as the boot device and
also contains user data. The key limitation is that Windows NT only allows a
FAT boot partition size of 4 GB or less.
If the NOS and data need to be on a single array (and single logical drive), and
you want to allow for capacity expansion, you must create multiple partitions.
1. Create a FAT boot partition of 4 GB or less for the NOS, which becomes
the C: volume.
2. Create a second partition for the data, which becomes, for example, the D:
volume.
3. The remaining virtual capacity must be left unpartitioned, and is available
for future partitions as you add disk drives to the array.
Preparing for Online Capacity Expansion under
Windows 2000
About Capacity Expansion under Windows 2000
Normally, adding capacity requires shutting down the server to reconfigure or
restore an existing volume or to add the new storage space as a new volume.
Using the Online Capacity Expansion feature allows you to expand an existing
logical drive without shutting down the server.
The Online Capacity Expansion feature cannot be used if a logical drive spans
multiple arrays. Each array can contain only one logical drive. Reconstruction
(for the purposes of adding a drive to an existing array) can only be done on an
array having a single logical drive. It is also important to plan future storage
expansion into your installation. This will ensure that you can easily expand
capacity without backup/restore operations or reconfiguration.
This section describes preparation for online capacity expansion for logical drives
operating in Basic Disk Mode under Windows 2000. (Capacity cannot be
expanded online for logical drives operating in Dynamic Disk Mode.)
Preparation for capacity expansion under Windows 2000 operating in Basic Disk
mode is simply to leave virtual sizing disabled (the factory default), or to disable
it if it has been enabled.