ML30 Gen9 E3-1220v6 NHP EU: is it possible to swap drives with higher capacity in Raid 5?

[GidPro]

Dear HP support and forum readers,

I have a ML30 Gen9 E3-1220v6 server in raid 5 config with 4x4 TB drives. Which I would like to replace with 4x8 TB.

Is this possible with the built-in B140i array controller in terms of compatibility? And what would be the most efficient way to replace the drives with no (or the least amount of) downtime?

I'm curious to hear your thoughts about this.

Thanks in advance!

[Jimmy Vance]

I've never attempted raid expansion on the B140i Dynamic Controller. In theory it is possible if you have a cache module.

For any Smart Array, this involves:

• Replacing each disk in the array individually and letting it completely rebuild for each disk replacement.
• Once all the drives have been replaced, then you can eeither expand the array to include the lost space (during the rebuild it only uses the current space) or create a new array.
• The final step is to increase the partition size or create a new partition in the OS.

If anything in the above procedure has an issue, you pretty much have to start from scratch

This is a very lengthy process, the most efficient way is to backup your data, replace the drives, create a new array, install the OS and restore the data