Is it possible to convert RAID 5 to RAID 0

[Kanakorn Horsiritham]

I am a new system administrator. I read from many book that RAID 5 can protect my data better than other, isn't it?
My system :
HP NetServer LC2000
NetRAID with 18.2 GB x 5 Harddisk
Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft SQL Server 7.0

With RAID 5, I dedicated 1 hdd to be a hot swap, and remain 4 disk. When implement RAID 5, my capacity will be only 3 (coz 1 disk to be a partition), so my system capacity is only 3x18.2 = 54.6 GB.

And this is my problem :
1. I just know that SQL Server will work better if I split .mdf into multiple .ndf and spread across multiple disk.
2. Now, my database is 40 GB. and I am afraid that I will have not enough space for rapid growing database.

So, CAN I CONVERT RAID 5 TO RAID 0 AND NO HOT-SWAP DISK?

Thanks, I am looking forward to the answer, my database boom is start ticking now....help...

[Vincent Farrugia · Accepted solution]

Hello,

I guess you can do that, but you have to backup your data and restore in Raid 0.

And I wouldn't suggest you doing that... Raid 0 offers NO protection for data. If you lose one harddisk, you lose ALL the data. It offers no redundancy whatsoever. But if you want speed, then you will like it.

What you can do then is to do a mirrored Raid 0 group (Raid 0/1). That way, you can achieve Raid 0 performance and you'll have redundancy. you will need double the disks you have now, though.

HTH,
Vince

[Enes Dizdarevic]

Although it is not recommended to have your database on raid 0 here is procedure how to change raid level on your array.
To be able to change raid level or expand array you must have only one logical disk on your array (you may have more than one partition on this one logical drive).
Install NetRaid Assistent from netserver navigator if you have not installed it yet.
Start it, select your array and find item expand capacity/change raid level in menus, follow the instructions.

[Insu Kim]

RAID technology uses a number of different techniques for storing data and maintaining data redundancy so changing RAID level requires first backing up the whole data and then you can define RAID level for a LUN again.

Hope this helps,

[Kanakorn Horsiritham]

Thanks for every answer. All are very much helpful.
As your suggestion, backup then change RAID.
I will detach .mdf then backup it, then change RAID and then attach .mdf back again.

Thanks again :-D