Migrating RAID 0 to RAID 5

[Luis Francisco Corona]

Hi:

I have an ML530 server with 2 72.8 GB disk on a RAID 0 Array on a Smart Array 5300 controler , Runing Windows 2000 Server SP4 on one single Logical Drive with 2 partitions , one of the disk seens to be having errors, so i want to migrate this configuration to a RAID 5 i have an extra disk same capacity, 72.8 GB , is this posible without losing all my data.

And if its posible where i can find the especific information on how to do it , on of the disks presented some isues a red icon on the front of the disk i took it an place againg and the arry seem to be rebuilt, but im afriad its the symtom of a bigger problem , so having redundancy would hel in case the disk fails again

Thanks in advance for any information

[TTr · Accepted solution]

According to the features in
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10640_na/10640_na.html

this controller has "RAID level migration" features. It is mentioned in the "Key Features, Online management features" section and under the "Products Highlights, Availability" section. Look for the "Raid type" or "raid level" migration in the menus of the ACU software for this controller.

Look at page 26 in
http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00729544/c00729544.pdf

under "Logical Drive", "Migrate RAID".

[Luis Francisco Corona]

Thanks for the useful information, i had been able to complete the migration , i just have another question, i started all this proccess becouse we detected that one of the disk of the original RAID 0 Array , has damage , now that we have it on a RAID5 our intention its to replace the disk , but we had only been able to find a 300 GB disk , compatible with our array controler, the question is if i can use that bigger disk to replace the one on my Array ,

Thanx for any information

[Uwe Zessin]

The total usable space is defined by the smallest disk drive in an array, but you can insert a larger disk.

Some people even use this 'trick' to migrate to larger disk drives: rip and replace one disk at a time and wait for full RAID recovery before you go to the next disk. After all disk drives have been replaced, the array shows free space which can be used to create new logical disks or extend existing ones.