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Extending an array on an MD3200 + MD1220
Hi there!
I wanted to ask if it's possible to extend an existing array without needing to delete it. For example if we have a MD3200 full with 12x 450GB SAS 15k 3.5" HDDs on a RAID5 array and a MD1220 connected it to it but with just 4x 960GB SSD Drives on a RAID5 array, can we expand this second array by adding extra drives? Or it's necessary to move the data somewhere else and destroy the existing array and rebuild it, instead of just adding more drives on the existing array.
Thanks a lot in advance for your replies.
DELL-Sam L
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January 19th, 2016 12:00
Hello angelos.pitsos,
Yes you can add drives to your enclosure & get them seen. Once the extra space is seen in MDSM you can then add the free space to any disk group or virtual disk. What you need to remember though is that you need to add the drives in pairs of 2. Here is the link to the admin guide & if you look on page 91 it has the steps to expand your virtual disk or disk group. http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/Common/powervault-md3200_Administrator%20Guide_en-us.pdf
Also what you need to be aware of is that when you extend a virtual disk is that it can take a while to finish as it is a low priority that will only consume max 30% of processing power for the MD3200.
Please let us know if you have any other questions.