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Adding Hot space to existing capacity
I have a PowerEdge 2900 with a PERC 6/i RAID controller with three physical disks attached. Currently have OpenManage 6.2.0 installed on Windows Server 2003 R2.
Disk 0 and 1 are configured as a RAID 1 array with disk 2 as a hot standby. I considering re-configuring the hot standby so that I have a three disk RAID 5 arrary.
Can I do this in a way such that I don't have to rebuild the array and put all of the data back onto the server?
theflash1932
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November 27th, 2013 09:00
That makes more sense (but sometimes non or semi technical bosses can make these types of mistakes :)).
You can't reconfigure TO or FROM a nested RAID level (10,50,60) on PERC controllers (including adding drives). You can reconfigure a RAID 1 to a RAID 5 or 6 though.
chrispbrown
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November 22nd, 2013 06:00
Thanks guys.
Job for a weekend then. I have full backups of the server data, would just need to do a current OS backup first, which I would do anyway.
DELL-Geoff P
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November 22nd, 2013 06:00
Yes, you can convert your RAID 1 to a RAID 5. Use OpenManage, and choose the reconfigure option. Select the drive and RAID level, and proceed. I would also make sure you have a good and valid backup before proceeding with any changes just to secure your data.
Go to Storage, PERC, Virtual Disk, and Reconfigure from the dropdown menu.
Regards,
theflash1932
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November 22nd, 2013 06:00
Yes. The controller supports RAID Level Migration, which can convert a 2-disk RAID 1 to a 3-disk RAID 5. Using OMSA, go to Storage, PERC, Virtual Disks, and select Reconfigure from the dropdown menu of Available Tasks for your RAID 1. You must first UNASSIGN the hot-spare so it shows as READY for the Reconfigure. It will take several hours to complete and will have some effect on performance during the Reconfigure - just like a rebuild. RAID 5 will also perform slightly worse than RAID 1 in write speed because of the parity bits required to be generated and written with the data.
chrispbrown
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November 27th, 2013 01:00
OK a related question. My boss has decided that we can spend some money, so I want to check that I can easily migrate our current RAID 1 setup to a RAID 0 setup.
theflash1932
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November 27th, 2013 06:00
As Geoff said, you CAN do this, but just because you can, doesn't mean you should :) Is your boss sure of what he's doing? Does he understand RAID and the role this server and its data/services plays? One failed disk and the array is irreversibly gone (short of having a backup or spending thousands on recovery). One write failure and the data is corrupt with no checks/balances to know the difference and/or repair it. Writes on a RAID 5 will be a little slower, but reads will be just as fast, so there will be little performance gained by going with RAID 0.
Just checking ...
DELL-Geoff P
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November 27th, 2013 06:00
Yes, the Perc 6/i supports reconfiguring your array from a RAID 1 to a RAID 0. You will lose redundancy and gain space.
Regards,
chrispbrown
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November 27th, 2013 07:00
D'oh!!
Yes he does, but clearly my fingers can't type 10.
I meant 4 physical disks running in a RAID 10 array.
chrispbrown
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November 27th, 2013 10:00
Thanks theflash1932. Looks like a long weekend then as I backup, destroy, rebuild then repopulate my server.
theflash1932
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November 27th, 2013 10:00
That's it ... good luck!
pcmeiners
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November 28th, 2013 08:00
"That makes more sense (but sometimes non or semi technical bosses can make these types of mistakes :))."
"Peter Principle
Mistake ? your being much too kind...
theflash1932
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November 28th, 2013 08:00
Ha ha ... how true!