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Upgrading/cloning mirrored disks


BL!

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Hey, forum!

 

I have:

Mainboard (legacy BIOS (no UEFI etc.))
Windows Server 2012 R2 (x64)
2 x 500GB disks (Windows server "software" mirror) Dynamic and contains 1 x System reserved partition (NTFS) @ 5GB, 1 x 1GB unallocated partition & 1 x (NTFS (C: and contains boot, page file and crash dump)).

Everything works fine and the 2 disks are error free, but I'm running out of disk space so I need to upgrade.

I have 2 x 1000GB disks ready to be installed, how do I clone (with CloneZilla, Ghost or similar software) this setup?

Do I have to break the mirror first and if so how to do that properly (remove or break)?

Any special parameters to use with cloning software?

Do I have to connect the new drives to the current setup and boot Windows in order for the new drives to be installed/recognized (before cloning)?

TIA!

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I wouldn't use any "cloning software", not that they are not good  but it seems to me that the replacement can be done with the built in tools.

Server 2012 shouldn't be much different from Server 2008, here is a primer for the latter:

https://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Configuring_Disk_Mirroring_(RAID_1)_on_Windows_Server_2008

If we call the disks:

A= 1st old 500 GB disk
B= 2nd old 500 GB disk

Y= 1st new 1000 GB disk
Z= 2nd new 1000 GB disk

You have now a mirrored set of A+B.

When you boot now, you should have a choice between a "normal" BCD entry and another one with "Secondary Plex" in the description, a good idea would be to check the BCD (with BCDEDIT or BootIce).

Theory of operation:

1.  break (NOT remove, i.e. DO NOT use the "nokeep" parameter in Diskpart) the mirror (on disk B).
2. switch off the PC and remove (disconnect physically) disk B
3. reboot, the system should behave normally
4. switch off the PC and add (connect physically) disk Y
5. re-create a mirror set, adding Y as mirror of A, you have now a mirrored set of A+Y
6. break (NOT remove) the mirror
7. switch off the PC and remove (disconnect physically) disk A, and move disk Y to the port where A was connected.
8. reboot, the system should behave normally (but you will probably need to use the "Secondary Plex" entry [1])
9. here is the point I don't know, will Server 2012 allow to extend the volume on Y? Or you might need to boot to a PE of sorts and extend the volume from it. :unsure:
10. reboot, the system should behave normally
11.
switch off the PC and add (connect physically) disk Z
12. re-create a mirror set, adding Z as mirror of Y, you have now a mirrored set of Y+Z

In the above procedure disk A and disk B (besides breaking the mirror) are not modified, so it should be "safe".

jaclaz

[1] you may need to use a PE or some other means (grub4dos) to set the partition active, check this:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/lync/en-US/41adc54b-36ca-4aba-9861-05cd8deff8e6/make-mirror-drive-primary

 

 

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1 hour ago, jaclaz said:

here is the point I don't know, will Server 2012 allow to extend the volume on Y?

Why not? on Windows 8 you can do it with disc manager or Diskpart (I don't take an oath for the OP OS, but he should have a look at it).

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3 hours ago, jaclaz said:

I wouldn't use any "cloning software", not that they are not good  but it seems to me that the replacement can be done with the built in tools.

Server 2012 shouldn't be much different from Server 2008, here is a primer for the latter:

https://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Configuring_Disk_Mirroring_(RAID_1)_on_Windows_Server_2008

If we call the disks:

A= 1st old 500 GB disk
B= 2nd old 500 GB disk

Y= 1st new 1000 GB disk
Z= 2nd new 1000 GB disk

You have now a mirrored set of A+B.

When you boot now, you should have a choice between a "normal" BCD entry and another one with "Secondary Plex" in the description, a good idea would be to check the BCD (with BCDEDIT or BootIce).

Theory of operation:

1.  break (NOT remove, i.e. DO NOT use the "nokeep" parameter in Diskpart) the mirror (on disk B).
2. switch off the PC and remove (disconnect physically) disk B
3. reboot, the system should behave normally
4. switch off the PC and add (connect physically) disk Y
5. re-create a mirror set, adding Y as mirror of A, you have now a mirrored set of A+Y
6. break (NOT remove) the mirror
7. switch off the PC and remove (disconnect physically) disk A, and move disk Y to the port where A was connected.
8. reboot, the system should behave normally (but you will probably need to use the "Secondary Plex" entry [1])
9. here is the point I don't know, will Server 2012 allow to extend the volume on Y? Or you might need to boot to a PE of sorts and extend the volume from it. :unsure:
10. reboot, the system should behave normally
11.
switch off the PC and add (connect physically) disk Z
12. re-create a mirror set, adding Z as mirror of Y, you have now a mirrored set of Y+Z

In the above procedure disk A and disk B (besides breaking the mirror) are not modified, so it should be "safe".

jaclaz

[1] you may need to use a PE or some other means (grub4dos) to set the partition active, check this:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/lync/en-US/41adc54b-36ca-4aba-9861-05cd8deff8e6/make-mirror-drive-primary

 

 

Wow! I really like and appreciate your thorough step-by-step description! Thanks (A LOT) for your reply! :-)

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13 hours ago, HarryTri said:

Why not? on Windows 8 you can do it with disc manager or Diskpart (I don't take an oath for the OP OS, but he should have a look at it).

I don't know, that's the point, it should, but I cannot swear by it, sometimes there are (very small) differences between a "normal" OS and the corresponding Server edition.

Personally, besides being old and grumpy (and cheap, but this is unrelated), I tend to be - generally speaking - very conservative when it comes to copying/moving data or changing partitions/filesystems, etc. and I would do the resizing from a PE to be on the safe side, in this particular case it would be probably overkill, as the "originals" (the A and B disks) are left untouched, so if anything goes wrong in the resizing of Y, in the worst case OP can go back and redo from start.

11 hours ago, BL! said:

Wow! I really like and appreciate your thorough step-by-step description! Thanks (A LOT) for your reply! :-)

You are welcome, of course. :)

Let us know how it goes, I have done similar "swaps" on Server 2003, but a few things have changed, and for *some reasons* the managing of Dynamic Disks (and soft mirroring) in Windows are largely under-documented, most probably because very few people (among us "amateurs") actually use them everyday, possibly professionals, IT people,  either know exactly the related procedures or are clueless but use third party tools.

jaclaz

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