DL360 G3 Create Mirror

[brad1_1]

Hello I have DL360 G3 with one drive installed and working, I would like to add another drive in slot 1 and build a array to RAID 1 is this possiable without losing my excisting OS and data? thanks

[TTr · Accepted solution]

The DL360 G3 has the SA 5i controller embedded.

Assuming that the single disk is set up as raid0 array right now, you can add a second disk into the raid0 array, allow it to rebuild as raid0 and then perform a raid level migration from raid0 to raid1.

[brad1_1]

And i can do that without losing any data on the original drive? HP told me that it will reformat both drives? and thats not what i want. I think its set to RAID 0 now

[TTr]

Both the 5i and 5i Plus quickspecs mention clearly that the online capacity expansion (adding disks) and raid level migration are available.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10890_na/10890_na.HTML

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11063_div/11063_div.HTML

With the new SA controllers the online features are available if the controller has the BBWC module installed. However this is not mentioned as a requirement with the 5i and 5i Plus. By the way check which controller you have and if the BBWC is installed and operational.

Online means the operation is done while the server is up and running.

Who from HP told you you need to reformat both drives as raid1? You should go back and challenge them.

As always before you start major disk surgery, run a full backup of your disk.

[brad1_1]

Ok thanks for the help its apreciated.

It was HP server chat support told me that if i install another drive it would reformat both drives to build the array.

[Uwe Zessin]

The new disk drive should be added while the server is running. Otherwise there is a certain chance that the controller is picking up meta-data from the wrong disk, killing your data.
I've seen it once. Colleague replaced a disk and powered on the server. Bye-bye to my data :-(

Anyway, I would still make should I had a good backup of the system.