Adding a RAID 1 array to a PE 2400 w/RAID 5 Array

Question

Hi all -   I have a PE 2400 with (3) 9gig. drives in a RAID 5 configuration.  Two containers, one is 4gig (primary) and the other is 14gig.  I'm running W2k.  I need to migrate to W2k3 and have determined that 4gig. will not be enough space.   I've looked at several alternatives, and have zeroed in on this one - I would like to know if holds any water, or if there is a better one.  The only real constraint is that the 14gig container cannot be disturbed at all, and downtime has to be kept at a minimum (real surprise!).   Purchase 2 larger drives, and during production install them and create a RAID 1 array.  Then take the server down and install W2k3 on the RAID 1 array.  Bring the server back up in production  on W2k3.  Use FAST or something similar to remove container #0 on the RAID 5 array and enlarge container 1 on the RAID 5 array to use all three drives - all during production.  The end result being two arrays; RAID 1 (two new drives) is the OS and RAID 5 (the 3 old drives) is data, etc.   Will it work?  Is there a better (easier) way?   Thanks for your input and guidance! Sean

barhampa · Answer

Sounds great but a little risky in a production environment. Would it be better to schedule some downtime, back up your all too important data first then try the migration?

CrystalPalace · Answer

Thank you for your reply.   Absolutely!  The problem is it's a retail environment that runs 7 days a week 12 hours a day, with about 6 hours of back office stuff.  My maintenance window is maybe 3 to 4 hours.  So I either stop sales or take a little risk.  In this environment it's safer to take the risk.

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

Adding a RAID 1 array to a PE 2400 w/RAID 5 Array

Was this post helpful?