Is it safe to rearrange disks in an MSA2010fc with multiple enclosures?

[Paul_637]

I'm sure it is but checking first.

Given an MSA2012fc with 2 x 12-bay expansion trays (so 36 slots avail total) I'd like to remove some of the disks and rearrange the others to a more optimal configuration.

At the moment we have:

Enclosure 0 - 8 x 450Gb SAS in a single VDisk
Enclosure 1 - 9 x 450Gb SAS in a single VDisk
Enclosure 2 - 12 x 1Tb SATA in a single VDisk

Firstly, I want to remove the 8 x 450 disks to use elsewhere, then I'd like to move the remaining disks to spread them over the enclosures (undecided as yet whether I'll also remove the enclosure with the 8 disks or leave it in).

So, according to HP Best Practice I read a while back, I'd be better off with a config where the disks are spread vertically across enclosures. Given this current config:

450 450 450 Emp
450 450 450 Emp
450 450 Emp Emp

450 450 450 Emp
450 450 450 Emp
450 450 450 Emp

1TB 1TB 1TB 1TB
1TB 1TB 1TB 1TB
1TB 1TB 1TB 1TB

What I think we should have (with 3 enclosures)is:

450 Emp 1TB 1TB
450 Emp 1TB 1TB
450 Emp Emp Emp

450 Emp 1TB 1TB
450 Emp 1TB 1TB
450 Emp Emp Emp

450 Emp 1TB 1TB
450 Emp 1TB 1TB
450 Emp Emp Emp

Or, with two enclosures:

450 450 1TB 1TB
450 450 1TB 1TB
450 Emp 1TB 1TB

450 450 1TB 1TB
450 450 1TB 1TB
Emp Emp 1TB 1TB

So, my questions are:

1) Is there really that much benefit in moving them given that it's already configured?

2) Can the disks simply be shuffled around (obviously with everything shutdown) and it'll sort itself out like the "old" SmartArray kit always could?

Any comments appreciated...

Paul