Add SCSI disk to Dell with PERC 4e/DI controller - RAID-5

4 dec 2005

As we ran out of disk space on our server, we needed to install an extra disk in our server.
The DELL server has a PERC 4e/DI controller and the 3 disks of 72 GB which are configured in RAID-5.
We use W2K3 as operating system.

So we ordered an extra 72 GB and got it a week later in a big box ...
The only documentation that came with it stated that the initialization of the disk could take very long.

To make a long story short, we followed the following steps successfully:

1. Shutdown the server
2. Add the new 72 GB SCSI disk in the first free bay
3. Start the server
4. Goto My Computer - Manage - Disk Management (Dell OpenManage Array Manager)
   Arrays - Perc Subsystem 1 - Perc 4e/DI Controller
   -->Backplane
   ---->We see a new "Array Disk 0:3"
   --> Virtual Disk
   ----> We see Array Disk 0:0 , 0:1 and 0:2
   -> Array Group 0 : Aha ... We see that the reconfiguration process is busy
   
5. After about 4 hours waiting, the Events tab shows following entries:
   a. at 4:22 PM: .... RAID-5, 136.48 GB ..... 204.73 GB .... started
   b. at 6:21 PM: .... reconfiguration completed
   c. at 6:25 PM: ... background initialization started
   d. at 8:04 PM: ... background initialization completed
   So, it took about 3 hours 45 minutes to complete the whole process
6. Reboot the server (this step is very important !)
7. Check "Disk Management" - Disk 0 : 68.25 Unallocated