Ghost/Clone Program to rebuild RAID 1 array on a SAS6IR Controller

Snapej2,

I am assuming you are asking about cloning in order to recreate the array with larger disks. The supported process would be to backup the data on the array, then delete and recreate the array with the larger disks. Then install the OS and restore the backed up data. Cloning isn't a supported process with Dell, as it can cause issues and instability in the array. Now if you have multiple partitions and have available space elsewhere, you can backup the partition and delete it. Then you can use this walkthrough to resize the C partition, then afterwards recreate the other partition and restore the data. 

Let me know if this helps answer your questions.

 "Cloning isn't a supported process with Dell, as it can cause issues and instability in the array"

I do not understand Dell's stance on cloning. Unless and array already has issues such as a double fault, puncture, major chkdsk errors cloning is a practical/safe means of porting an array over to a new array, with or without resizing, or porting over to a different array type.

The rebuild from scratch/restore method, on a complicated server, is time consuming, tedious, expensive, and pressure involved.  Have servers with multiple resident programs, multiple SQL instance etc etc which manually could take over 30 hours to rebuild; rather expensive, especially if for some reason it must be accomplished during working hours. In my experience, I have ported smaller arrays to larger array at least 40 times and never had any issues. Have cloned between different controllers, the on board disk interface(motherboard) and Percs, between different arrays...always works.

Used different cloning softwares, primarily Acronis. Granted if you use a little known cloning software and or do not test your array for errors previous to cloning you could have issues. Go from scratch/restore on a complicated server and you will have issues, especially if your not the one who built the server originally.

I'll have a look at this but it does seem quite a pain having to rebuild everything from scratch, quite time consuming.

Thanks for the reply.

I don't understand Dells position on cloning either

I apologize for not clarifying earlier. The reason that Dell doesn't generally support cloning is due to the inherent instability that it can cause. This is due to system state, as well as other information like MAC addresses being shared over. This can cause issues across multiple platforms, from the servers hardware and drivers, to causing networking issues. Yes, the rebuild method is time consuming and can be inconvenient, but does ensure that the server is a stable platform and minimizes the inconvenience of troubleshooting random issues in the future, resulting in a loss of production. 

Granted if were are going between different motherboards, yes cloning can cause issues.

 Much of the time on this forum we are not referencing a change in hardware which could make cloning an issue. Dell has one answer for all cloning scenarios. Dell's stance on cloning within the same hardware base (same mother board) is way off the mark, there are no issues using well known cloning softwares beyond issues which are the result of OS errors or raid hardware/software issues...basically nothing to do with cloning, and could show up  in a build from scratch/data restore

Which edition of Acronis do you use?

Also my colleague has suggested  looking into the possibility of migrating the server to a virtual server (P2V) using the free Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 product.  This way we would use the existing server hardware with the large drives, create a new RAID array with a small partition for the Hypervisor to run off and have the rest as VM (Virtual Machine) storage.

We should then be able to expand the drives either as part of the P2V process or from within Windows once the VM is up and running.

Have you done anything like this and if so how successful was it/

There are many softwares used for server cloning, just two I have used (older versions of the links below). Just run chkdsk on the involved disks before cloning. Both will expand the target array during the cloning process. Add the new array controllers driver, update the new controllers firmware, before cloning.

Server edition, very expensive…

 http://www.acronis.com/en-us/business/backup/windows-server/

 Easeus, cheaper…

http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-server.html