maxed out server (dell poweredge)

[jbourne84]

Our usual network guy is MIA and im stuck with trying to solve our server problem. We have a dell poweredge 2900 with 650gb of space which we are about 30gb away from maxing out.
It runs a Xeon E5310 (1.6ghz quad core) and has 4gb RAM

it runs small business server 2003, which is another issue since outlook 2013 is not compatible. So at some point we need to upgrade this as well.

What are my options? Can i just plug more hard drives into this thing? we purchased it in 2007/2008 so i thought it was new enough to keep using, anyone have any advice?

Thanks

 

[06yfz450ridr]

if your raid card has the option to do online raid capacity expansion your all set you can download the software for your raid controller and it should have the option in there to add the new disk to the raid.

i had the same problem as you at work, we no longer have tons of space left but my raid card does not support ORCE and most will not unless you upgraded your card and it has to have an add on battery and added memory to be able to make the orce work

the only other real option is to save your raid to a single drive then re create the raid once you add the other drive which is a big big pain. but since you already seem like you want to upgrade to atleast server 2008 or maybe 2010 i would start backing everything up and do an upgrade then add the new drive

 

[choucove]

The Dell server you have is starting to show its age, but it's hard for us to say what would be best because we don't really know what you are doing with it. If it's functioning as a basic storage server or basic domain controller, then you should be fine with the current unit. I noticed that the latest Windows version supported is Server 2008 R2, so if you were planning to do an upgrade this is where you would be. If your RAID controller supports online expansion, like mentioned above, you can try that out and add your additional drive that way, but your hard drives will all need to be identical for RAID. If not, then yes, duplicate all the data to a single drive for backup, add your new hard drive, and recreate the RAID array. Then you have to duplicate all the data back. This is one of the reasons why virtualization on newer servers and OSes has become so wonderful, because you could move your VM to a spare computer and continue working as if nothing was changed, all the while having time to work on upgrading or replacing your main server, and then just move the VMs back when you are finished.

In the end, depending upon what you are wanting to do with the server and what your budget might allow, I'd probably recommend replacing the server to get you updated with something capable of future expansion and compatibility with the latest hardware and supported operating systems. However, this might not be an option for you if you have a very minimal budget to get by.

 

[Supermuncher85]

If it's just more space I would even consider a refurbished MD1000 from servermonkey. Can even order it with the raidcard, if you don't already have one of the PERC raid cards that usually come with the Dells.

 

[popatim]

At 5/6 years old on a server I would say its time to retire it. Have the new one run side by side a a month and then set the old one to pasture.