1 Topic by AM

  • AM
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Topic: Win 2K3 X64

Hello!

I have a server with two SCSI HDDs (in a RAID 1 array) with the Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 X64 Enterprise edition installed on a single partition. I would like to decrease the size of this partition, create a second partition in the newly emptied space, so that I could install a system recovery environment on the resulting second partition.
My questions are:

1) Could GParted accomplish this on an HDD setting as above?
2) Could the live CD even be used in a 64 bit Windows 2003 server?

Thank you,
AM

2 Reply by gedakc

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Re: Win 2K3 X64

AM wrote:

1) Could GParted accomplish this on an HDD setting as above?

If the RAID device is a true hardware RAID (no software drivers required) then GParted should be able to resize the partition as you described.  If the device is a motherboard BIOS supported RAID (also known as FAKE RAID) then GParted does not currently support such devices.

AM wrote:

2) Could the live CD even be used in a 64 bit Windows 2003 server?

The LiveCD should work with both 32 bit and 64 bit x86 processors.  Since the LiveCD contains it's own small GNU/Linux distribution, it does not use the operating system on your hard drive.

Due to the potential loss of data due to software bugs, hardware problems, or power outages, it is highly recommended that you backup all your data prior to manipulating your partitions.

3 Reply by AM

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Re: Win 2K3 X64

Hi gedakc,

Thank you for the quick reply. My server is a Dell PowerEdge M600 blade server and its Dell SAS 6/iR integrated blades controller does need a driver (which I had to supply during the windows install process). So I guess I am out of luck according to what you had mentioned in your reply :-(

AM

4 Reply by gedakc

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Re: Win 2K3 X64

If you are comfortable using the command line, you might want to take a look at using the "ntfsresize" and "fdisk" commands directly for modifying the partition.

5 Reply by AM

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Re: Win 2K3 X64

Sure! It sounds like that's what I have to do.
Thank you very much and have a great new year  smile

AM

6 Reply by stormhead

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Re: Win 2K3 X64

Hi,

AM wrote:

My server is a Dell PowerEdge M600 blade server and its Dell SAS 6/iR integrated blades controller does need a driver (which I had to supply during the windows install process).

Don't confuse this driver with a "Fake-RAID" driver!
Windows needs device drivers for every piece of hardware, since it does not use the BIOS routines to talk to your devices. This is completely normal and has nothing to do with "real" RAID or "Fake-RAID".

The difference between "real" RAID controllers als "Fake-RAID" devices is that a "real" RAID controller brings along its own firmware, processor and memory (higher-class models even with battery backup for several hours...). Upon booting, such a controller detects the hard drives connected to it, then assembles the arrays existing on these drives (alternatively, you can enter the controller firmware to manage your arrays), checks for volumes existing on these arrays, and then presents the volumes to the operating system.
As a reault, the operating system does not see the single hard vdrives behind the controller, and it does not need to see them, since all work - distributing data across the devices, checksum calculations and error detection, array re-build and so on - are done on the controller's CPU by the controller alone. The operating system does not even know it is running on a RAID.

A "Fake-RAID" controller, opposed to this, simply is a "regular" UDMA or SATA controller with a slightly extended firmware. This firmware is able to manage and detect the arrays and volumes on the connected drives, and it enables the BIOS to boot off the RAID, but just like any "normal" expension card's firmware, it runs in the host CPU (the "Fake-RAID" controller dioes not have a CPU on its own). As a result, the BIOS - and later Windows, once it has taken over control - needs to know about the hard drives connected to the controller, it needs to know that they are members of a RAID and how this array is to handle, and Windows - or the "Fake-RAID" driver - has to do all the work described above on the host CPU.
So Windows needs direct access to all the hard drives involved, and since all the work is done in software, it needs a driver that knows how to read the RAID metadata, how data will be distributed acress the drives and so on.

In opposite to a "real" RAID controller, a "Fake-RAID" will work only with operating systems for which the manufacturer provides device drivers.
Most RAID controllers integrated into mainboard chipsets are "Fake-RAID", and you can easily pay a 1000 € on a RAID controller that deserves its name. ;-)
So if you have direct access to your hard drives - maybe within Windows' hard drive management - you're likely to have a Fake RAID.