removing drives from an array

[lynxms17]

I have an ML370 w/ a 431 array controller. Until recently, I had (3) 36 gig drives in a RAID5 array. I added (3) more 36 gig drives to the array but am having some problems getting Novell 5.1 to use them as I want.

My current array has all 6 drives online as one logical drive. I currently have four partitions on the logical drive. They are, System, DOS, Netware, NSS. I need to create Novell Storage Groups before I can add the space to any of my NSS Volumes. In retrospect, I think I should have added the drives as a second logical drive and created my Storage Groups over there as I am limited to four partitions on my existing drive.

How can I pull the recently added drives from my logical drive and remove them from the array?

[Xavier Gutierrez_1]

Hi, Jim.

I'm afraid you can't do that without losing all your data.

The data has been striped across all of the disks and (as you're using RAID5) parity has been distributed also. That is, you have no way to know where your data are exactly.

The only thing you can do is make a good backup and re-configure the system from the beginning.

Best regards and good luck.

[lynxms17]

Not quite the answer I was hoping for but probably the one I expected. :)

Thanks ... sounds like a 'over the Thanksgiving vacation' project.

[Donald Kok]

Hi,
You can physically remove one disk out of the raid5. Then the array will rebuild, if not you can command it to. After the rebuild, the raid5 is redundant again. Then you remove a disk again the same way. And so on...

Off course you have a recent backup, and off course there is enough free space on the raid.

Good luck
Donald