Server Storage Issue

By bankajac
in Microsoft (Windows)

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bankajac

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Facts: We are running SBS 2003 with has five physical drives. The settings are as follows: Virtual Disk 0 is set up as Raid 5 and has 10GB; Virtual Disk 1 is set up as Raid 5 and has 57.73 GB; Virtual Disk 2 is Raid 1 and has 136.62 GB. The server has 3 x 33.87 GB and 2 x 136.62 GB drives.

Problem: Virtual Disk 0 (drive C:) is running out of space. This is where SBS server is installed.

Question: How do I fix this? There is about 300 MB of free space on drive C. Our computer company has been moving stuff and using disk cleanup to free up space I believe as I saw that on our monthly bills. I do not think that that is the solution. Anyways, the are no longer working for us. My first thought is that I should somehow extend the Drive C partition; however, this is a Raid setup and I have only done this on a single disk on a Windows PC. If this is not the way to fix this, what is?

Thank you in advance.

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Neowinian

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Without the use of specialised software you won't be able to enlarge the C: drive, even if you add another hard drive into the RAID array. There are some things to check though:

1. If you're using Exchange then you should check that the mailbox store is stored on another drive.

2. It's also worth checking on the current location of the Exchange Transaction Logs as these will grow between backups and if a backup isn't being done properly will take up a lot of space. Don't delete them via explorer.

3. Check that the swap file is not being stored on C: drive if so move elsewhere.

You're always going to have issues as 10Gb isn't really enough for a C: drive.

Cheers

Conrad

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bankajac

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I am pretty sure that the exchange mailboxes are on Virtual Disk 1 (the 57.73 GB drive). The mailboxes and swap file are all on dive E: (Virtual Disk 1). I think that the only solution is to add more space or enlarge the current space. Will adding a drive to Virtual Disk 0 (Raid 5) increase the partition?

Can someone explain to me how this Raid setup works? The two drives that are 136.62 GB set as Raid 1 are easy for me to understand. These drives are just mirrored, right? Raid 5 requires at lease 3 disks, so I am not sure how Virtual Disk 0 with 10 GB and Virtual Disk 1 with 57.73 GB are possible?

Anyways, how do I make drive C: bigger?

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bobbba

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if your c: drive is 57GB and it's out of space you've got something other than the OS on there. depending on what's using the space it will probably be easier to relocate some of this than finding away to expand c:

Maybe use treesize to find out where the space is being used.

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hjf288

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I think its VST RAIDCORE or something like that which is a software based RAID that is VERY flexible..

You can move your disks around ports and it still recognises them, disadvantage being that it takes processor power because it isnt Hardware RAID but it can do alot of decent stuff if your looking for a ultra flexible raid.

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bankajac

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Drive C: is 10 GB. Drive E is 57 GB (where mailboxes are).

Windows is not going to let you resize the root drive . You can take a look at your RAID controller and see if you can add drives without destroying the data on the drives. If that does not work, then migrate then Image, re-raid and restore.

Really? I have done this before using Acronis Disk Director Server. Worked beautifully except that the drive was not RAID.

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bankajac

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I would love to somehow make drive C: 20 GB. It is my opinion that SBS needs more that 16 GB of free space (500 MB is just too small for mailboxes). I think that 20 GB is the minimum I would use to install Server 2003 Standard. I have a domain controller that runs windows server 2003 enterprise that uses 8 GB of space. Microsoft says that 1.5 GB is all that is required. That's crazy!!!!

Anyways, any suggestions on how to increase the size of my C: drive. It sounds like maybe I am stuck with what I have unless I image and buy bigger drives?

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bobbba

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Repeating myself here...

Yes you would be crazy to have a SBS server with only 20GB of disk space in total.

No, it would not be crazy to have a 10/16GB C: drive and move the application data to drive C:, it's just a matter of actually looking at the folder location when you install software and moving it if it's already on C: (like those mailboxes for instance...).

As for the getting a windows 2003 DC into 1.5GB it is not impossible. Give it 128MB of RAM(to reduce the pagefile) and leave out unused components and it should do it even if it's going to run like a dog.

Neowinian

Xport

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Have you checked the location of the transaction logs, they can grow very quickly if the backup isn't being performed properly.

How to move Exchange Databases and Logs in Exchange 2003

Most RAID controllers that can do RAID 5 can expand your existing array without destroying data, you will still need something like Acronis to resize the C:.

When the RAID array is created you can specify how much you want to allocate to the virtual disk. The tech has then made a second virtual disk that is actually part of the same RAID 5 disk array. It's best to look at it as a big disk that's been partitioned.

As another thought what backup program are you using? This will typically save their catalog to the C: drive unless it's been altered.

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