Fundamental Disk Mirror Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul Kavanagh
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Paul Kavanagh

I have a Windows 2000 Small Business Server (SP2) which has 2 identical IDE
hard drives which are configured as a mirror set. Each drive is 40GB in size
and the server is configured with a single 40GB C: partition.

I have to do some work to the server and this requires applying SP4 and all
latest updates.

Although I have a good tape backup, I would like to have the "safety net" of
a cloned disk of the complete working system. I know it's obvious that I
already have a cloned disk in the 2nd drive of the mirror set, but what's
the best procedure for me to follow? Should I remove the second drive
(without breaking the mirror in Disk Administrator), boot the server and
apply all patches on the single disk? Will the server even boot in this
config? Will it not look for the second drive?

If it does boot, I apply all patches and things go "belly up" (God forbid!)
can I boot from the 2nd drive with minimal fuss?

I've tried using Symantec GHOST 2002 to clone the mirror set (following
special requirements on symantec site), but it got 25% through the clone
operation and then reported "not enough space on drive d:" (there was!), I
then had no option but to power off the server as I couldn't abort the
operation.

I realise this is a very fundamental question but this server is a live
production unit and I really can't afford the time to rebuild it!!!

Thanks in advance for any help offered,

Paul.
 
Probably the easiest thing to do would be to use Disk Management to break
the mirrored volume (don't remove the disk), apply the updates, and then
re-mirror/re-sync the volume.

If this volume is the boot volume, be sure to read the relevant KB articles
so that you understand all of the issues of mirroring a boot/system volume
before you do any of this.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302969

Hope this helps,

Michael McConnell [MSFT]
 
Thanks Michael,

I've tried this before on a different server and found that if I broke the
mirror using Disk Admin then I couldn't boot from the 2nd disk - security
descriptor problems. It would get as far as the Press CTRL,ALT,DEL to logon
and then throw up an lsass.exe error and force a shutdown.

What if i didn't break the mirror first?


Michael McConnell said:
Probably the easiest thing to do would be to use Disk Management to break
the mirrored volume (don't remove the disk), apply the updates, and then
re-mirror/re-sync the volume.

If this volume is the boot volume, be sure to read the relevant KB articles
so that you understand all of the issues of mirroring a boot/system volume
before you do any of this.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302969

Hope this helps,

Michael McConnell [MSFT]

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.



Paul Kavanagh said:
I have a Windows 2000 Small Business Server (SP2) which has 2 identical IDE
hard drives which are configured as a mirror set. Each drive is 40GB in size
and the server is configured with a single 40GB C: partition.

I have to do some work to the server and this requires applying SP4 and all
latest updates.

Although I have a good tape backup, I would like to have the "safety
Click to expand...
net"
of
a cloned disk of the complete working system. I know it's obvious that I
already have a cloned disk in the 2nd drive of the mirror set, but what's
the best procedure for me to follow? Should I remove the second drive
(without breaking the mirror in Disk Administrator), boot the server and
apply all patches on the single disk? Will the server even boot in this
config? Will it not look for the second drive?

If it does boot, I apply all patches and things go "belly up" (God forbid!)
can I boot from the 2nd drive with minimal fuss?

I've tried using Symantec GHOST 2002 to clone the mirror set (following
special requirements on symantec site), but it got 25% through the clone
operation and then reported "not enough space on drive d:" (there was!), I
then had no option but to power off the server as I couldn't abort the
operation.

I realise this is a very fundamental question but this server is a live
production unit and I really can't afford the time to rebuild it!!!

Thanks in advance for any help offered,

Paul.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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