Hey guys a few months ago I got called from a local dentist who wanted me to take over his IT work and start upgrading all office pc's. This has been a great opportunity and I want to offer them the best service possible. Here is my situation. The guy before me had the new server built, its a Dell T320, decent little server for what they need. They had no backup solution in place so i got them an external drive to use with windows server backup and that is working nicely. There is no room internally for more drives. So...this weekend I noticed the c drive has 2 gigs free. The data partition has just over 3 terabytes. No windows updates can be applied and I'm worried about the next software update they use for the office. Now my gut is telling me my only real option is to make sure the backups work, reformat and repartition the whole thing and rebuild it. I really, really dont want to have to do this is possible but I see no other option. Do I have any other options guys? I know I cant extend the c drive so thats out of the question.
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Ideas for dental office server
- Thread starter Lucasta
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2GB free? Did you mean 2 MB? Because 2 GB is a lot of space.
Your better bet is to find out what is using that space. Clear out all temporary files, old crash dumps, update rollbacks, etc.
And, whatever you do, don't reformat etc - use a new set of disks so that if it all goes horribly wrong, you can put the old disks back in for zero downtime.
You should also look at an online backup solution to supplement the external drive. Be sure that it complies with legislation.
Your better bet is to find out what is using that space. Clear out all temporary files, old crash dumps, update rollbacks, etc.
And, whatever you do, don't reformat etc - use a new set of disks so that if it all goes horribly wrong, you can put the old disks back in for zero downtime.
You should also look at an online backup solution to supplement the external drive. Be sure that it complies with legislation.
Log files and temp files have been deleted already. The c drive is only a 40 gig partition and the data partition is set at M so I cant extend C because the drive letters aren't contiguous. They already have an online backup for their database I just wanted an additional safety net.
The drive letters don't need to be contiguous.
can you provide a screenshot of the disk management view?
partitions can only be extended to the right. Of course, you need unpartitioned space between the end of partition 1 and start of partition 2.
So chances are, you will need to do a lot of partition-juggling, but I'm sure it can be done.
You also may not be able to do it within Windows. If you have a chance to shut down the server for a few hours, you can use a boot disk and extend it offline. Parted magic works great for that and it's free. (Older versions are)
OP, I hope you're familiar with HIPAA and the risks that it brings to you being the IT guy of a dentist.
Pretty much this.
Pretty much this.
I'd check the raid controller also to see how the arrays are setup, it's possible the old guy created them individually and that will make volume extension more difficult. Another option might be virtualize the setup, which will allow for easier disk changes without a re-install.
QwertyJuan
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You should be able to "shrink" partition M and give yourself some free space. Once done, you can extend partition C. Done it before. Very simple.
QwertyJuan
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You doing this within Windows or via some raid controller??
A trick you can use is to use Junction points to redirect subfolders to M: - don't use this for anything under c:\windows, but anything under c:\Program Files is fair game.
Hmm... Are you using Roaming Profiles? Because you should set up a folder on M:\ for network profiles, and not host them on C:, because you often get huge profiles when Outlook is in use
Hmm... Are you using Roaming Profiles? Because you should set up a folder on M:\ for network profiles, and not host them on C:, because you often get huge profiles when Outlook is in use
D
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Not sure where you guys are seeing raid or array. This is one of Dell's entry tower servers I would bet it is a single drive.
I would review what is on M, you may need to resize/move M and then extend C. Cloning C to a new disk would be much easier than a bomb n nuke, you have no idea what nuances you inherited until the user notices they aren't working or there anymore. Your job is to keep up the rep of "getting paid to do nothing" because its that reliable rather than fixing shit all the time.
Also what Schro said.
I would review what is on M, you may need to resize/move M and then extend C. Cloning C to a new disk would be much easier than a bomb n nuke, you have no idea what nuances you inherited until the user notices they aren't working or there anymore. Your job is to keep up the rep of "getting paid to do nothing" because its that reliable rather than fixing shit all the time.
Also what Schro said.
The Dentrix and Dexis databases are stored on m drive. Ive never had the pleasure of moving a database so Im not sure what all is involved and getting it back up and going. It could be possible to just copy it and resize the M drive then move everything back I just simply dont know.
D
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Well if they are in SQL, and depending on the software, it could be quite easy to move.Is it possible to pop another drive in there(if even short-term) and clone M to it,log into windows(prob safemode) and change drive letter M to something else, bring in the new drive as M, and see if life is happy? If so, blow away M and resize c then bring M back. IDK, lots of options here depending on what the options are.
QwertyJuan
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If it was me? I would get something like Acronis, make image of C: then attach another drive to the machine and restore that image to it. Voila. Larger system drive.
a t320 is a solid small biz server, unless is configured absolute bare bones, it probably has at least a h310 controller.
swatbat
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You have some good news there as Dentrix support for me in the past has been very good. FYI if you end up needing to move the databases(although from what you have said I'm not sure why) they have their own software to do a backup and restore of the database. I'd call them before trying anything as they should be able to help you as far as their software goes.
He says it doesn't have internal room for more drives so it sounds like it should have some array on it but yea OP we need more details on this. 4 cabled drives supported, 8 or 16 hotswap bays what? How many drives and what config are the in. I haven't seen one of these with the 4 internal bays but you might be able to get the parts from dell to upgrade to 8 hot swap for instance. If not a second raid card and the below might be an option(or off one if they are already on sas)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...Kt0DMNeAOWOTyT0Gxxa3ZhoCDIHw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Point is you have some options but without more info we can't really help.
D
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I never said it was a shitbox either. I've not come across a bad dell server, big or small. Disk setup is unknown, still
D
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It's top secret. We might steal his database.
QwertyJuan
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Regardless of how it's setup... like I said, if he hooks up another drive and clones the system partition to it, instant larger drive. That would be the "simplest" way to proceed at this point IMO.
P.S. YES I have done this before. Had an OLD server with 80GB HDD in it if I recall. Cloned the system drive to another drive. Booted up, added another drive and instant RAID. Went from single 80GB HDD to a 500GB RAID array.
P.S. YES I have done this before. Had an OLD server with 80GB HDD in it if I recall. Cloned the system drive to another drive. Booted up, added another drive and instant RAID. Went from single 80GB HDD to a 500GB RAID array.
He doesn't necessarily need bigger drives, just needs to resize the partitions. It could also be a HDD size issue. Sounds like a partition size issue though. He hasn't given enough info to tell.
why are you updating windows?
do you know if the software installed requires any updates? what if one of the updates breaks the software his practice is using?
I wouldn't bother updating it unless it is critical and if the server needs access to the internet
do you know if the software installed requires any updates? what if one of the updates breaks the software his practice is using?
I wouldn't bother updating it unless it is critical and if the server needs access to the internet
This is terrible advice.
I'm pretty sure to be HIPAA compliant you need to be patching your systems plus it's just good practice.
uhhh... dentist office = HIPAA compliance
possibility of also needing to abide by PCI compliance if their CC readers are on the same network.
Both of which require systems to be patched with security patches.
D
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Given the 40GB boot partition, the original installer probably just used the factory Dell layout. you'll need to boot with a partition manager to shrink the Data partition, move it to the end of the Virtual Drive and then expand the boot partition.
Alternatively, while 40GB is a bit small for my taste, it's certainly viable with monitoring. Also, make sure you clear old profiles, downloads, temp files, etc from the C: Drive to free up as much space as possible. You might be able to run Disk Cleanup to clear out old update files as well.
Alternatively, while 40GB is a bit small for my taste, it's certainly viable with monitoring. Also, make sure you clear old profiles, downloads, temp files, etc from the C: Drive to free up as much space as possible. You might be able to run Disk Cleanup to clear out old update files as well.
Soldier101
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I have always just copied all of the data relating to Dentrix / Dexis (my clients keep theirs on a separate partition labeled Data). Setup the new server. Install the software and then import from the backed up data.
Using Dexis and Dentrix makes me want to develop my own software and offer it at half the price haha. Frustrating stuff sometimes but it does the job.
Using Dexis and Dentrix makes me want to develop my own software and offer it at half the price haha. Frustrating stuff sometimes but it does the job.
QwertyJuan
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I realize this.... BUT it won't cost much and he'll have a larger partition.
Mackintire
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Boot partition needs to be 150GB.
Acronis Disk Director could repartition the box with ease as long as it isn't a adv RAID 5 or 6.
If it is THEN you'd need the enterprise version of Disk Director and that's a little pricey at $600+ a license.
Acronis Disk Director could repartition the box with ease as long as it isn't a adv RAID 5 or 6.
If it is THEN you'd need the enterprise version of Disk Director and that's a little pricey at $600+ a license.
He has a 3TB array. He's not low on disk space. This is not the appropriate solution.