online capacity expansion

Hello,

How do I use the OCE option on my raid card. I did not buy any yet. But it would be one of areca, 3ware, adaptec, LSI or the Perc 5 in a dell server.

1. Add a harddrive (hotswap is supported) when system is running
2. Select the raid configuration to expand and add the new harddisk
3. Expand the volumegroup, and logical volumes


Questions about the steps:
2. How is this possible without bringing the system down (BIOS: not an option)
Normally done: Storagemanager in OS (windows or ....)
Only open-e is running so I can't install client appliacation.
How can this(if possible) be done in open-e without shutting down the system?
And does this work for every raid controller?
3. after step 2, is the volumegroup expansion done automaically? (cause the raid set has grown) Or should I make open-e 'aware' of the expansion.

Thanks for your help (again)

Add the drives to your existing RAID set (Please read RAID controller manual as some procedures differ), then in Console screen go to Extended Tools CTRL + ALT + X and select the option "PV Resize" then select the new capacity that you added. Reboot system then you will see in Volume Manager/ Unit Manager the new unit, add this to your existing VG0 or create a new Volume Group VG1 or VG2.