Converting RAID 0 to RAID 1 DL380 G2

I have a boot device in ID=0 on a DL380 G2 currently configured by the Smart
5si RAID controller as RAID 0. Is it possible to insert a second
identical device and reconfigure the existing RAID 0 volume to RAID 1
without losing data?

--
Will

"Will" wrote in message
...
I have a boot device in ID=0 on a DL380 G2 currently configured by the
Smart
5si RAID controller as RAID 0. Is it possible to insert a second
identical device and reconfigure the existing RAID 0 volume to RAID 1
without losing data?

--
Will



I know you cannot take a Raid1 and go to a Raid0 .... give it a try, it
might work. Wait ... I can test that for you, but it will be a few days
before i can post the results


- LC

"Will" wrote
I have a boot device in ID=0 on a DL380 G2 currently configured by the
Smart
5si RAID controller as RAID 0. Is it possible to insert a second
identical device and reconfigure the existing RAID 0 volume to RAID 1
without losing data?

I recon you can.

Either way:
- You should have a backup before you try any array manipulation
- If it's possible, it will let you do it
- If it's not possible, you won't have the option
- Update to the latest firmware BEFORE you start

So I recon you can quite safely go for it.

I know RAID 1 to 5 migration works fine. (2 to 3 disks), but I've not tried
any other permutations. Do it theough the OS / ACU - it won't let you do
anything destructive that way.

In article , Take-out-the-
says...

"Will" wrote
I have a boot device in ID=0 on a DL380 G2 currently configured by the
Smart
5si RAID controller as RAID 0. Is it possible to insert a second
identical device and reconfigure the existing RAID 0 volume to RAID 1
without losing data?

I recon you can.

Either way:
- You should have a backup before you try any array manipulation
- If it's possible, it will let you do it
- If it's not possible, you won't have the option
- Update to the latest firmware BEFORE you start

So I recon you can quite safely go for it.

I know RAID 1 to 5 migration works fine. (2 to 3 disks), but I've not tried
any other permutations. Do it theough the OS / ACU - it won't let you do
anything destructive that way.


I did the same thing on my 1200 Proliant firewall machine - I had
originally built it up as RAID0 and then decided to change it to RAID1
with an offline spare.


There are two ways to do this:
The first way is a bit of a cheat, and you can do this if you have a
spare machine lying around. In my case I have a Proliant 7000 with three
drive bays, two of which were empty (third one fully configured with
working Gentoo system on it), so it was easy to set up one drive bay as
two arrays, first array being RAID0, second being RAID1, and then dd'ing
the original RAID0 drive onto the two other drives. Take out the pair of
RAID1 drives, insert into the firewall machine (preserving slot order
just to be extra paranoid) after I've reconfigured the array as RAID1
+offline spare, and presto.

Of course this method is caution overkill but I did have a spare 7000,
and a guarantee that if things did stuff up then my original RAID0 disk
remained untouched.

The second method is simply to add the extra drive into your machine,
reconfigure array to RAID1, and wait for it to rebuild. This should be
no problem as long as you don't change the location of your original
drive.

"." wrote in message
om.au...
The second method is simply to add the extra drive into your machine,
reconfigure array to RAID1, and wait for it to rebuild. This should be
no problem as long as you don't change the location of your original
drive.

Just to let everyone know, on the DL380 G2, I was able to add a second
drive, then under Windows I configured it to belong to the same array as the
existing RAID 0 boot device, and I migrated the logical drive to RAID 1.
It worked fine.

Now I have a follow on question: let's say I want to do an experiment with
the DL380 G2 that involves destroying the current RAID configuration
entirely and creating a new one. I power off the machine, remove the
current drives, reboot and destroy the RAID configuration, then insert new
drives for the experiment.

When I'm done with that experiment, can I just remove the experiment drives,
destroy the RAID configuration again, power off the system, and then try to
boot after inserting the original drives? Will the RAID pickup the
configuration on the original drives and try to re-establish it? If not,
is there any way to do what I am describing here a different way?

--
Will

"Will" wrote in message
...
"." wrote in message
om.au...
The second method is simply to add the extra drive into your machine,
reconfigure array to RAID1, and wait for it to rebuild. This should be
no problem as long as you don't change the location of your original
drive.

Just to let everyone know, on the DL380 G2, I was able to add a second
drive, then under Windows I configured it to belong to the same array as
the
existing RAID 0 boot device, and I migrated the logical drive to RAID 1.
It worked fine.

Now I have a follow on question: let's say I want to do an experiment
with
the DL380 G2 that involves destroying the current RAID configuration
entirely and creating a new one. I power off the machine, remove the
current drives, reboot and destroy the RAID configuration, then insert new
drives for the experiment.

When I'm done with that experiment, can I just remove the experiment
drives,
destroy the RAID configuration again, power off the system, and then try
to
boot after inserting the original drives? Will the RAID pickup the
configuration on the original drives and try to re-establish it? If not,
is there any way to do what I am describing here a different way?

--
Will


Yes, the array setup will automatically revert to the configuration that is
stored on the original (non-experimental) disks. The array configuration is
stored at the controller level, and at the drive level. This is done so that
if a controller failure occurrs, and the device is replaced, the drives will
then "teach" the array controller about the array configuration that existed
prior to its installation.

Let us know if you have more questions.

- LC