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35418
October 23rd, 2006 17:00
RAID Level Migration and Use OpenManage to Reconstruct RAID
We have a Dell PowerEdge 1600SC with two 72GB SCSI drives on a PERC3/SC controller in a RAID 1 (Mirror) configuration. OS is Windows 2000 Server. The drive is partioned into a C: and a D: (I want to expand D:).
I'm trying to do a RAID Level Migration from the current RAID 1 configuration to a RAID 5 with three 72GB drives (for the record, the new drive is 147GB - I understand it will only be seen as 72GB).
I gave the new drive SCSI ID 2 by setting a jumper on the drive (it seems the existing two drives are ID 0 and ID 1) and installed it.
In the PERC3 BIOS, it indicates that the logical drive 0:0 is working (but has been downgraded) and the new drive is listed separately as 0:2. There is no listing for 0:1 that I see.
If I go to "Reconstruct" it lists the new drive as being offline.
Can anyone offer tips on how to proceed. Do I need to do some kind of "initialization" or bring it "online" first, or even "rebuild" it which it seems willing to do - though I not sure what it would be "rebuilding" at this point - I haven't even got to the option to select what RAID I want to migrate to.
I've read the section "Reconstructing Logical Drives: RAID Level Migration and Online Capacity Expansion" in the user guide, but it's not working that easy. I've backed everything up, but reinstalling the OS and setting everything up again would take a huge amount of time.
Finally, I thought this could all be done using the OpenManage software (5.1 09/11/2006), but I drill down to the storage devices and I'm not seeing any "Reconstruction" option (like there is in the PERC3 BIOS). Am I missing something or have to do something before it shows up or is this not possible using the OpenManage software? This is a server currently in use and I'd like to do the whole RAID migration within Windows so that our office can continue to use it while the drives are "reconstructing".
I'm trying to do a RAID Level Migration from the current RAID 1 configuration to a RAID 5 with three 72GB drives (for the record, the new drive is 147GB - I understand it will only be seen as 72GB).
I gave the new drive SCSI ID 2 by setting a jumper on the drive (it seems the existing two drives are ID 0 and ID 1) and installed it.
In the PERC3 BIOS, it indicates that the logical drive 0:0 is working (but has been downgraded) and the new drive is listed separately as 0:2. There is no listing for 0:1 that I see.
If I go to "Reconstruct" it lists the new drive as being offline.
Can anyone offer tips on how to proceed. Do I need to do some kind of "initialization" or bring it "online" first, or even "rebuild" it which it seems willing to do - though I not sure what it would be "rebuilding" at this point - I haven't even got to the option to select what RAID I want to migrate to.
I've read the section "Reconstructing Logical Drives: RAID Level Migration and Online Capacity Expansion" in the user guide, but it's not working that easy. I've backed everything up, but reinstalling the OS and setting everything up again would take a huge amount of time.
Finally, I thought this could all be done using the OpenManage software (5.1 09/11/2006), but I drill down to the storage devices and I'm not seeing any "Reconstruction" option (like there is in the PERC3 BIOS). Am I missing something or have to do something before it shows up or is this not possible using the OpenManage software? This is a server currently in use and I'd like to do the whole RAID migration within Windows so that our office can continue to use it while the drives are "reconstructing".
countryman73460
81 Posts
0
October 24th, 2006 20:00
Going from a Raid 1 to a Raid 5 with an AMI/LSI controller such as the PERC 3/SC is pretty simple. Once the 2 original are back online and you can boot to the OS....
Go into the LSI PERC controller bios. From the main menu, select "reconstruct". You will then have another window pop up, showing the 2 online drives and the "ready" drive.... Highlight the "ready" drive, then press the space bar to select the ready drive. Then press enter. Then a "reconstruct" window will,pop up. You'll see "Raid 5" as the type... Then at the bottom of that window is "reconstruct". Arrow down to highlight it. Then press enter, then select "yes" to reconstruct. The reconstruct will take place.. This will take some time, so do this when the system can be "down" and unavailable for several hours. DO NOT not perform without a backup.
svtech
6 Posts
0
October 24th, 2006 21:00
The drives are 72GB 68pin Ultrawide320 10K Fijitsus. The new drive is a 147GB 68pin Uultrawide320 10K Seagate. I don't believe it has a "backplane" though I'm a little unclear about that term (I have a lot of experience with "desktop" hardware, but have little experience with "server" hardware). The two existing drives are sitting in a pull-out drive cage. There's a single SCSI cable with a number of connectors snaking out from deep within the case along with power connectors. The last "connector" on the SCSI cable has a terminator on it. I simply slid the new drive into the cage and connected the next available SCSI connector and a power connector and tried booting. The new drive kept making a weird spin-up sound over and over again and when I entered the PERC BIOS, it scanned the SCSI bus and couldn't find it (and the BIOS menus were going extremely slow and kept temporarily locking up). I disconnected the drive and tried reconnecting it, and it did the same thing.
That's when I guessed that I might need to set the SCSI ID. After adding the jumper, and reconnecting the new drive, it stopped making the constant spin-up sound and the PERC BIOS was able to find the drive when scanning the bus. Maybe adding the jumper is the wrong thing to do, but it didn't appear to be working at all without it.
I'll take another look at the BIOS Reconstruct, but I don't think it was showing the new drive as "ready"... but I might me remembering that incorrectly. I'll report back when I can kick everyone off the server!
Please let me know if anything I've added here sheds more light on figuring this out.
Thanks again!
countryman73460
81 Posts
0
October 24th, 2006 21:00
svtech
6 Posts
0
October 24th, 2006 22:00
svtech
6 Posts
0
October 24th, 2006 22:00
1 3X424 PROCESSOR, 80532, 2.0G, 512K, 533FSB, SOCKET F
1 6P607 KIT, CABLE, FLOPPY DRIVE, PE1600
1 4Y131 KIT, DOCUMENTATION ON COMPACT DISK, DOCUMENT OBJECT MODEL, V3.3.3, WORLD WIDE
2 5120P CORD, POWER, 125V, 6FT, SPT2, UNSHIELDED
1 7N242 KEYBOARD, 104, UNITED STATES, SILITEK, LOW COST, MIDNIGHT GRAY
1 4N433 MOUSE, PERSONAL SYSTEM 2, 6P, 2BTN, LOGITECH, SAW34
1 9N019 COMPACT DISK DRIVE, 650M, I, INTERNAL, HALF HEIGHT, 48X, BLACK, HITACHI LG DATA STORAGE
1 7R195 ASSEMBLY, CABLE, SCSI (SMALL COMPUTER SYSTEMS INTERFACE), 68P, 4DROP, 37IN
1 8R234 ASSEMBLY, CABLE, AUXILIARY, POWER, 4DROP
1 5R758 ASSEMBLY, CABLE, SCSI (SMALL COMPUTER SYSTEMS INTERFACE), 68P, 1DROP, 31IN
1 8U502 TAPE BACKUP UNIT, 20GB, HALF HEIGHT, INTERNAL, Digital Data Storage type 4, SEAGATE, V6
1 4M969 OVERPACK KIT, WINDOWS 2000, SP3, ENGLAND/ENGLISH, WORLD WIDE
1 2H794 CARD (CIRCUIT), CONTROLLER, PERC3-SC, PCI/S, 32MB
2 2R850 HARD DRIVE, 73GB, SCSI (SMALL COMPUTER SYSTEMS INTERFACE), U320, 10K, 68P, FJT
2 0X772 DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 256, 266M, 32X72, 8K, 184, R25
Thanks!
svtech
6 Posts
0
October 24th, 2006 22:00
svtech
6 Posts
0
November 28th, 2006 15:00
A couldn't get the migration to work. I eventually just backed up all the data and then rebuilt the server from scratch. Setting up a new RAID 5 array from scratch with the three drives was a breeze... reinstalling everything was a drag. But it all worked out.
Thanks for all the help here on the forums!