DL380G6 RAID 10 with 6 spindles

[Noah Adams]

Trying to configure a DL380G6 with RAID 10 across 6 spindles. Drives are in slots 3,4,5,6,7,8 (primary array is in 1 and 2).

Default config has two mirrors - 3,4,5 in one, and 6,7,8 in another, striped together. I would like to have 3 mirrors. 3,4 mirror, 5,6 mirror, 7,8 mirror, striped together. I can't seem to find a way to do this in the Array config software, no matter which way I access it (f8 on startup, booting with the CD in, or running array config in Windows)

Can someone tell me if this is possible?

[TarunJain · Accepted solution]

Hi Noah,
I think what you want is already configured.
HP controllers only support RAID 10 not RAID 0+1.
RAID 10 is dual tier RAID, where RAID 1 is configured first so mirror of 3,4, mirror of 5,6 and mirror of 7,8 would be created.
then the controller will create RAID 0 on three hard drive blocks (3+4), (5+6) and (7+8).
If HP is not creating RAID 10 in this manner then that would be a major breach of RAID standards

[TarunJain]

Hi Noah,
Good News
HP indeed implements the RAID 10 as you want.
Refer the following document:
http://docs.hp.com/en/J6369-90050/ch02s03.html

Therefore, You should have the desired configuration right now.

[Noah Adams]

Thank you very much. I was concerned because in Array Config it states "Drives assigned to mirror group 1" and "Drives assigned to mirror group 2"

Group 1 is 3,4,5
Group 2 is 6,7,8

I arranged the drives so that no two manufacturing dates were together, based on a pairing of disks 3,4; 5,6; 7,8. Mostly to be safe with separating disks from the same batches. Will I still be safe with how I've arranged them? it's possible that I've put two drives with the same batch in either group 1 or 2, because I was not thinking of the arrangement that way.

[TarunJain]

Hi Noah,

Seperating hard drives batch was a really nice thought.
Don't worry about hard drive placement now, as you have correctly took the precaution and put hdd of two different lot in a mirror group.

Let's assume if all the hard drives of single batch fails at same time even then you will have at least one working hard drive in each mirror set (3,4); (5,6); and (7,8).
Be it 3,6,7; 3,6,7; 4,5,7 or so on.

In a nutshell you concepts are right and you have correctly deployed the RAID 10 solution with available hard drives.

You can Refer to following article for a brief difference between RAID 10 and RAID 01
That should be helpful
http://decipherinfosys.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/difference-between-raid-01-vs-raid-10/

Regards,
Tarun

[Noah Adams]

Thank you so much Tarun, you've put my mind at rest :) Enjoy the points :)

[Noah Adams]

See thread.