Integrated HP NetRAID Controller Config. Guide

Chapter 7 Preparing for Online Capacity Expansion
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Refer to one of the following sections in this chapter:
• See "Preparing for Online Capacity Expansion Under NetWare 4.2" if you
are using Novell NetWare 4.2.
• See "Preparing for Online Capacity Expansion Under NetWare 5" if you
are using Novell NetWare 5.
• See "Preparing for Online Capacity Expansion under Windows NT" if you
are using Microsoft Windows NT.
• See "Preparing for Online Capacity Expansion Under Windows 2000" if
you are using Microsoft Windows 2000.
Preparing for Online Capacity Expansion under
NetWare 4.2
About Capacity Expansion under NetWare 4.2
Normally, to add capacity you must shut down the server to reconfigure and then
restore data, or you must add the new storage space as a new volume. The Online
Capacity Expansion feature allows you to expand an existing logical drive
without shutting down the server.
Under NetWare 4.2, use virtual sizing to prepare for online capacity expansion.
Virtual sizing is enabled separately on each logical drive. When enabled, the
controller presents to the operating system a logical drive of 144 GB, which is the
default size. Only a part of the 144-GB logical drive exists as actual physical
storage; the remainder is virtual storage. You configure volumes to use only the
actual physical space, while the virtual space allows room for online expansion.
NOTE The 144-GB default size of the logical drive that the controller
initially presents to the operating system is the minimum size.
The size can be increased.
For example, assume you have one RAID-5 logical drive built from four physical
hard disk drives of 4 GB each. The result is 12 GB of actual storage space. If you
enable virtual sizing for this logical drive, then the operating system will see a
logical drive of 144 GB. Only the first 12 GB are real, 4 GB are used for parity,
and the last 128 GB are virtual.