Server 2003 online C drive Expansion

Today I went retro and expand the C drive of a 2003 server. In the past I have used Gparted for this but there was a requirement for the VM to remain online this time and so I decided to use Dells Extpart tool . The steps I performed were:

Firstly I copied the zip of the ExtPart tool over to the server in question and extracted it to C:dellExtPart . I expanded the size of the VM disk as normal and then RDP’s to it.

I launched command line and changed directory to the location I had extracted the files to, C:dellExtPart.  The format for the command is as follows

Usage: extpart [volume size] volume  – volume to expand. eg. f:, g: etc. (only basic volumes) size    – size in megabytes to expand the volume

So in this case I ran C:dellExtPart>extpart.exe C: 5120

ExtPart – Utility to extend basic disks (Build 1.0.4) (c) Dell Computer Corporation 2003

Current volume size     : 20480 MB (171798691840 bytes) Current partition size  : 20480 MB (171798691840 bytes)

New volume size         : 25600 MB (214748364800bytes)

It completed quickly and then I checked the space was visible in Windows disk management. That was it, job done.

You know 3pardude.com is the place to go to for the latest technical info, next week how to pimp your spectrum ZX.

 

Richard ArnoldLeave a comment

Checking multipathing in Windows

To check what multipathing settings a Windows server is using you can use the command line utility mpclaim.

To check the policy your volumes are currently using:

mpclaim -s -d

MPIO Disk    System Disk  LB Policy    DSM Name
 -----------------------------------------------------
 MPIO Disk1   Disk 2       RR           Microsoft DSM
 MPIO Disk0   Disk 1       RR           Microsoft DSM

The multipathing load balancing policy is shown under LB policy  so in the above case RR for Round Robin.

To view the number of paths there are to a volume enter the command  mpclaim -s -d followed by the system disk number you want more details on.  For example:

mpclaim -s -d 1

MPIO Disk1: 08 Paths, Round Robin, Symmetric Access
 Controlling DSM: Microsoft DSM
 SN: 6002AE000000013B006E3B

Supported Load Balance Policies: FOO RR RRWS LQD WP LB

Path ID          State              SCSI Address      Weight
 ----------------------------------------------------------
 0000000087060003 Active/Optimized   005|000|003|001   0
 * TPG_State : Active/Optimized  , TPG_Id: 256, : 124

0000000087060002 Active/Optimized   005|000|002|001   0
 * TPG_State : Active/Optimized  , TPG_Id: 256, : 122

0000000087060001 Active/Optimized   005|000|001|001   0
 * TPG_State : Active/Optimized  , TPG_Id: 256, : 24

0000000087060000 Active/Optimized   005|000|000|001   0
 * TPG_State : Active/Optimized  , TPG_Id: 256, : 22

0000000087060003 Active/Optimized   004|000|003|001   0
 * TPG_State : Active/Optimized  , TPG_Id: 256, : 123

0000000087060002 Active/Optimized   004|000|002|001   0
 * TPG_State : Active/Optimized  , TPG_Id: 256, : 121

0000000087060001 Active/Optimized   004|000|001|001   0
 * TPG_State : Active/Optimized  , TPG_Id: 256, : 23

0000000087060000 Active/Optimized   004|000|000|001   0
 * TPG_State : Active/Optimized  , TPG_Id: 256, : 21

 

Richard Arnold7 Comments