topic Re: Convert RAID 1 to RAID 5 w/o Backup/Restore? in Disk Enclosures

Convert RAID 1 to RAID 5 w/o Backup/Restore?

Jeffrey Renard — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 18:55:41 GMT

I think I know the answer to this but thought I'd get some backup before putting my job on the line...

On a Proliant DL380 G4, you can break a hardware Raid 1 (two drives with OS) and retain the data, but is it then possible to convert the drives to RAID 5 w/o reformatting and restoring from backup? As in... is an in-place conversion to RAID 5 possible?

Re: Convert RAID 1 to RAID 5 w/o Backup/Restore?

The Spartan — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 10:11:06 GMT

Raid 1 to Raid 5 conversion....

Honestly, have not tried that but am circumspect about that.

Bottomline:
I dont see any technical reason for it to not happen.
You may try it only after tacking a full backup of the data

Re: Convert RAID 1 to RAID 5 w/o Backup/Restore?

Patrick Terlisten — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 15:35:24 GMT

Hello Jeffrey,

AFAIK is it possible. You don't need to break the mirror, but you need at least min. three disks to build a RAID 5. Without guarantee: If you only have two drives in the array which holds your logical drive (RAID 1), add a third drive to the array and migrate the logical drive from RAID 1 to RAID 5.

Regards,
Patrick

Re: Convert RAID 1 to RAID 5 w/o Backup/Restore?

The Spartan — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 23:44:14 GMT

RAID 1 to RAID 5 is very much feasible.

Just to add to the point you may lookup -

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=983644&admit=-682735245+1163911386678+28353475