Tuesday, July 6, 2010

HP Proliant server - Multiple Logical Drive Creation with single R5 array

I got a new HP ProLiant DL160 G6 server to replace my aging ML150 G2 file server. It is equipped with the Smart Array P212 controller and 4x 1 TB SAS drives. The OS is Windows Server 2008 R2.


I had to create 2 logical drives (LUNs) from the usable 3 TB RAID 5 array because the disk where Windows is installed must be a MBR disk, which is limited to 2 TB. By having 2 LUNs (100 GB for the OS and the rest for storage) Windows sees them as separate disks, so you can configure the bigger volume as a GPT disk, bypassing the 2 TB limit.


When you press F8 at boot time to access the P212 setup program, you do not have the option to create logical drives inside your RAID array. To enable this function, you must boot on the provided "Easy Set-Up" CD, and access the ACU there.


After that you install the OS on the smaller volume. When Windows is installed, you can convert the second logical drive as a GPT disk, with full access to the disk space.










Thanks to gregersenj from HP ITRC forums for pointing me in the right direction !

See his post at http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1420815

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting. This is a great comment and helpend me on christmas day to install Windows on a DL 160 G6 with P410 Smart Array Controller and 4 x 2 TB disks. I was baffled to see that i had 3,5TB inaccessable space. I found out the difference in the ACU now.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

I have a 4 disk raid 5 (all on Disk-0). I created logical drives (D: L: M: N:). L=SQL Logs, M=SQL Data, N=SQL Index. Since all these logical drives are on disk-0, does this make sense? or would there be too much overhead with all these logical drives?

McThePro said...

Multiple logical drives on the same physical drive are worthless performance-wise.

LoneWolf said...

Thanks for posting this. I started a Windows Server 2012 Essentials install today on a ProLiant Microserver with a P410 Smart Array controller, and was definitely flummoxed for a bit. I'm also not used to a RAID controller that won't let me create multiple containers from within the BIOS itself. Your post saved me time and additional frustration.

Unknown said...

Hello There,

Thanks Frank, i have a new HP ML350, after that i did what you suggested, and then installing windows server 2008 R2 Standard 64, it rebooted before getting to "Completing installation" then the server kept loading with the load bar for 2 days... and didn't work ... any thoughts why ??

McThePro said...

@Amir:

Sorry, I never experienced that...