acronis disk director server in a RAID 5

My Question is : I Have a server proliant ML 350 With a (RAID 5) single partition.

I would like ro create one system partition and one Data partition.

Would it be possible (With Acronis Disk Director Server) even if the single partizion is made of three HD in RAID 5 configuration?

I do reallly need an answer before proceeding ...remember that it's a production server. Can I be safe in proceeding??

TIA

PS
The Acronis Disk Director Server is Version 10.0 build 2,077


PPS
the server is a domain controller with an overall disk space of 300 GB . In that Partition there are already two Data folder (50 GB each). If I create two partition wiht Disk Director Server (40 GB and 260 GB) will the data folder be placed in the largest partinon ??

TIA

 

I will mace the question as easier as possible:

Can I split a 300 GB partition of 300 GB size in two (40 and 260GB) even if that partition is made up of three Hard disk in a RAID 5 Configuration

And what about the existing Data ..can I move the data folder (only) on the new partition (i.e. 260GB)??

TIA

 

Re: acronis disk director server in a RAID 5 volume

At least let me know if it is possible to split a RAID 5 volume (on a domain controller....) with Acronis Disk Director Server....I'd need an answer before proceeding!!!!!!!!

Please

TIA

 

Re: acronis disk director server in a RAID 5 volume

I have not used DD Server before. However, if it's like DD then you should be able to split the partition. If DD correctly sees the RAID setup, it will see it as "one" drive, so the number in the array shouldn't matter.

I would also note that "splitting" is not recommended by several of the forum regulars (myself included) because something can go wrong during the procedure. It's usually safer to do a resize and then create a new partition. Any data can then be moved as you see fit.

It's highly recommended to create an Entire Disk Image backup of the drive (RAID or otherwise) before making any partition changes. The software is designed to be data-safe, but sometimes things do go wrong.

Do you currently have DD Server? If so, can you boot to the CD and verify if it sees the RAID setup correctly? That's really going to be the only way to tell.

 

The RAID is correctly viewed.

And so you say that splitting is not recommended? Better resize and create a new partition??...

Think I'm gonna leave the server as it is .

All in all is a Domain Controller and a production server and I don't want to ..uck everything up.

All I wanted to do is "logically" separate the DATA from the Operating system ( as it is usulally recommended), by splitting in two the partition.

But with all these uncertainities I am gonna leave the world as it is.

After all there are not many advantages in splitting a single partiton containing both data and OS :

of course it is easier to manage , but if the server goes nuts i'll have everything ..ucked up...(partition server splitted or not)

thanks anyway

 

If you wish post what you think about my last post, it'll be most appreciated

TIA

 

I assume that this is from the DD CD. Did you start the Split procedure and see if it would go throught the steps. You should be able to select the folders you want on the new partition as well as how you want the free space distributed. As long as you don't Apply the changes, you can play with it and not make any changes.

This is the problem. Splitting can be done in two ways. One way just splits off free space to create a new partition. This is the same as resizing (shrinking) the original partition and then creating a new partition in the unallocated space. The other way lets you select folders you wish to move to the new partition and adjust the free space for each partition. This will create and resize, copy, resize, copy, resize as necessary to get the data moved. Depending on how much free space you have on the partition, it may be able to do it in one copy operation. With less free space, more work is required because the program can't move all the data in one step (because it won't fit).

The reason that I don't recommend Splitting is that you can't tell what is going on. If you do each step manually, you are in control and can verify each step as it's done.

That being said, if you have a backup image of the drive and can restore it if something goes wrong, using the Split procedure is probably quicker.

I took this to mean you had decided not to make any changes and so didn't post back.

Understandable. I hope you have created disk image backups and that you have successfully restored some and know that it works properly.

It really depends on what type of data it is. Some data is best left on the OS partition. Some can be moved to another partition without causing any problems. Is the data you want to move going to cause any problems being on a different paritition? Or is it "unconnected" data?

If you have enough free space on the drive (it sounds like you do), you could shrink the existing partition and create a new partition. Then you could copy the data to the new partition and kind of "test out" the procedure before you remove the original data from the OS partition.

One advantage of having a smaller OS partition is that you can back it up more quickly and on a different schedule than you might want for your data. However, if the data is more important than the OS and the OS isn't taking up very much space (compared to the data), you would probably want to backup everything on the same schedule as the data since any time savings gained from excluding the OS data would be minimal.