Is this possible.

[WMihalik]

Okay, the general consensus here is that the following is not possible using hardware RAID but would be possible using software RAID. I just want to check with the experts and hopefully get a final word on the matter.

There's this server, a DL580, that needs to be built and company standard states that you must have a mirrored boot drive, but due to a mistake in ordering it only came with one hard drive. This of course makes mirroring very difficult if not downright impossible.

The question is this: if an OS was put on the single drive would it be possible to mirror that drive when the second one arrives without destroying the information stored on the first drive?

[Sunil Sharma_1]

I am sure you are using windows platform. Yes it is very well possible to mirror disk in windows withour destroing data.

Sunil

[Alzhy]

Most Proliants come with a SmartArray RAID Controller built in. If this is true for your DL580, then simply add a new disk and invoke ACU (Array Configuration Utility) to do a RAID1 configuration... which by this time I think is no longer disruptive.. It's been eons since I've tackled Proliants - but that's how OS and Data disks are normally protected on these machines.

[Greg Carlson]

No problem,

When you get the second hdd, make sure that you choose the option to change raid level to 1 instead of expanding the array which would leave you at RAID 0.

ACU will give you that functionality to migrate raid levels.

Greg

[e4services]

This is all assuming that the one drive you have is in a hot swap bay and that bay channel is attached to a RAID controller and not the onboard SCSI controller.