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49504
January 31st, 2014 08:00
PowerEdge T710 PERC H700 RAID level migration question
As part of my new position, I have inherited a number of servers previously managed by someone else. One of them is a PowerEdge T710 with a PERC H700 controller. It has two arrays; the second one has four 3TB drives in a RAID-5 configuration.
I don't need the storage space anywhere near as much as the reliability factor. Is it possible to do an in-place migration from RAID-5 to RAID-6 without disturbing data? There is plenty of free space, and I have no issue losing some of the free space I have.
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theflash1932
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January 31st, 2014 08:00
"Is it possible to do an in-place migration from RAID-5 to RAID-6 without disturbing data?"
Yes, BUT you can only do this by ADDING another disk. RAID 6 requires a minimum of 4 disks. Insert a disk "hot", then in the OpenManage software (OMSA), go to Storage, PERC, Virtual Disks, and Reconfigure from the dropdown menu of Available Tasks for the RAID 5.
"There is plenty of free space, and I have no issue losing some of the free space I have."
Aside from the fact that RAID 6 requires a minimum of 4 disks, even if you wanted to migrate from a 4-disk RAID 5 to a 4-disk RAID 6, it could NOT be done. You cannot make an array smaller. The controller doesn't know - or care - about actual OS data on the disks (so the amount of 'free space' doesn't matter) and is only worried about the virtual disk space (which would be full if the entire capacity of the drives was used).
PrepIT
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January 31st, 2014 09:00
I have four 3TB disks. They were set up as RAID-5.
I want them to be four 3TB disks - set up as RAID-6.
theflash1932
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January 31st, 2014 09:00
Ok ... you didn't say how many were in your RAID 5 in the beginning, and I guess I assumed :)
Correct, if you want a 4-disk RAID 5 to be a 4-disk RAID 6, you will need to backup/delete/configure/initialize/restore.
:)
PrepIT
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January 31st, 2014 09:00
From the original post:
" It has two arrays; the second one has four 3TB drives in a RAID-5 configuration." :emotion-1:
Thanks for the assistance, though, much appreciated.
PrepIT
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January 31st, 2014 09:00
Okay. So it sounds like if I don't want to add a disk, I'd need to back up the data, delete the VD, create a RAID-6 VD, and restore.
Thanks for the information, I appreciate it.
theflash1932
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January 31st, 2014 09:00
I'm not sure I understand. You MUST have 4 disks to configure RAID 6. So, if you currently have 3 disks, you are going to have to add one anyway, in which case you can simply do a Reconfigure (instead of a backup/restore). Am I not understanding what you are trying to do, or are you not understanding what can/can't be done? :)