can't change the raid level in raid assistant

[Little]

I'm using netserver LH3, with the following raid setting:
Disk9 - 9Gb (Raid 0) (no data)
Disk8 - 9Gb (Raid 0) (installed NT4)
Disk0-3 - 18Gb each (Raid 5) (data)

I want to change the raid level for disk 9 and 8 from raid 0 to raid 1 in hp raid assistant, but it said not available. What should I do? I want to change the raid level without re-installing the OS.

Thanks in advance.

[Marco Hogeveen · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Changing the RAID level from 0 to 1 on disks 8&9 is not possible because Netraid Assistant thinks that you will loose data when you do that.
That's because you have 18GB available on ID 8&9 now, but when you change to RAID1 you only have 9GB, so you loose 9GB of data.

But since ID9 has no data on it, like you mention you need to remove the logical drive on ID9.
If ID9 has the last logical drive created on it (Logical drive 3 for instance) and you have a recent version of Netraid Assistant installed you can remove it by right clicking on this logical drive and select 'delete'.

Now you can add ID9 to the logical drive on ID8.
Click on ID9 (the status should be READY now, instead of ONLINE) and drag it to the logical drive on ID8. You can add this disk now and select RAID level 1. It will migrate your data from RAID0 to RAID1.

Remember that this only works when there'e only 1 logical drive on your RAID0.

Good luck,

Marco.

[Little]

Marco, thanks for your reply. I've just installed the newest version of the netraid assistant, which is ver. B.02.00. When I select Disk 9 and right-click, I would only find two options available. One is "Fail Drive" and the other one is "Properties." Should I choose "Fail Drive" and make it to be "Ready"?

[Marco Hogeveen]

Hi,

You should not right click on the physical disk itself, but on the logical drive that's on it (that's in the lower part of the window). Now you can delete it if it's the last logical drive that has been created i.e. has the highest number).

Marco.

[Little]

Oh, ic. But the Disk9 is not the last logical drive created. This is the second logical drive. I can see the "delete" option is dimmed. It seems I need to reboot and enter the netraid bios to clear the configuration, right?

[Marco Hogeveen]

If it's not the last logical drive you created you try this, but it's risky, you have to know what you're doing:

- Clear configuration and re-create the configuration exactly the way it was without ID9 configured: your config will look like:
ID0-3: RAID5
ID8: RAID0
ID9: Ready

But you have to create the array exactly the way it was, so for the RAID5: use the same stripesize and select the disks in the same order as before.

DO NOT INITIALIZE!!!!!!!!!!!

Now boot the server and add ID9 to ID8 and migrate to RAID1.

For safety: please create a backup copy of your netraid configuration from Netraid Assistant, if reconfiguring it fails then you can always boot from Navigator CD and load the configuration back the way it was.

Take your time, Good luck!

Marco.