Diskpart worries

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Guest

Hi,

I am looking to extend a volume using Diskpart. Two Windows 2K Adv Server
nodes attached via SCSI to HP Smart Array Storage box using. Each Server has
redundant SCSI connections using Multipath 2.0 software. There are 7
volumes, all Basic Disks. I have already configured my new drives and added
the free space using the HP ACU software. I see the 427GB of free space at
the end of the particular Volume that I wish to extend. The Volume is
currently 300GB and the data is backed up. I know that I am supposed to
power down one node and then take all Resources offline then bring only the
disks online, what about the Quorum drive and its MSDTC resource? Should the
Quorum drive alone be brought back online or the MSDTC as well. Then, when I
run Diskpart and tell it to extend the drive will it really work, meaning
will I not lose any data? Has anyone else done this that can give me some
feedback?

Thanks very much!
 
Joe,

You should not take the quorum disk offline. You should not have the MSDTC
online while you're extending this disk...assuming your MSDTC resource is
using the quorum disk for storage. If not, then it is irrevelant. You really
shouldn't need to extend the quorum drive, but if you do need to extend the
disk where the quorum resides, uses MSCS to move the quorum log to a
different disk while you extend the quorum's old drive. The key is that you
do not want any open "handles" on the disk while you're extending the file
system.

You should only extend one disk at a time, so you shouldn't need to take all
resources offline. Only take the resources in that disk's group offline and
that should kill most of the handles on the disk. You might consider using
the handle.exe tool from www.sysinternals.com as well to verify there are no
handles on the disk when you extend.

I have used diskpart and 95% of the time (with W2K SP4 or 2003) it works
great. Even if you're one of the unlucky 5%, you will NOT lose data by
extending the file system. You may not have access to the extra freespace,
but you will not lose data. In the situations where I've seen diskpart fail
to extend the filesystem (even though disk manager thinks it did), Microsoft
can help you fix the issue as they have a utility to correct this.

Regards,
John
 
Thanks for the info,

I am not extending the Quorum drive. I am not extending a System Drive
either. Simply one of my Logical drives that contains financial data. I
apreciate your input and I will see what happens.

Thanks again.
 
HI,

Diskpart didnt work for me and I dont know why. I have the free space at
the end of the drive I wish to extend and I powered off one node then took
the Group I wanted to work with offline and brought only its disk back online
and no luck. What am I missing? I have three disk groups on the cluster.
Quorum, SQL Virtual Server, and a 3rd Party App. Each have their own IP's,
Names and Drives. I am trying to extend the drive on the 3rd party app
group. I even ran handles.exe and saw no open handles. I am using HP
hardware. Do I need to disable any services? I have multipath 2.0, HP diag
stuff and cluster service. I would assume that I shouldnt stop the cluster
service. I tried stopping all the HP and compaq services and it still didnt
work. Multipath was stopped as well and no go. I am desperate now. Please
does anyone have any advice?

Thanks
 
What was the error that occurred?

Regards,
John

Joe said:
HI,

Diskpart didnt work for me and I dont know why. I have the free space at
the end of the drive I wish to extend and I powered off one node then took
the Group I wanted to work with offline and brought only its disk back online
and no luck. What am I missing? I have three disk groups on the cluster.
Quorum, SQL Virtual Server, and a 3rd Party App. Each have their own IP's,
Names and Drives. I am trying to extend the drive on the 3rd party app
group. I even ran handles.exe and saw no open handles. I am using HP
hardware. Do I need to disable any services? I have multipath 2.0, HP diag
stuff and cluster service. I would assume that I shouldnt stop the cluster
service. I tried stopping all the HP and compaq services and it still didnt
work. Multipath was stopped as well and no go. I am desperate now. Please
does anyone have any advice?

Thanks
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