ML310 G4, How to Migrate RAID 1 to larger drive set?

[Les Garten]

I have a client with a HP ML310 G4.  Has (2) 80GB drives in RAID 1 with the LSI Controller that came on the Server from HP  8-port.

The client is remote and I am going to be visiting them for the migration.  I did a survey of the machine remotely and the controller is described as :  PCI Device  LSI 53C1068 8-port SAS 3000 Adapter

I have  ( 2) 750 GB WD SATA drives to go in the server.  The mirror is intact and functioning fine.

Additionally, I have a 500GB drive attached to a USB port that I can use to "scratch" to if need be.

What would be the best/easiest/safest  plan to migrate the mirror to a bigger mirror set?

[Les Garten]

Any ideas?

[Les Garten]

HP has a great resource tool here...

[Matti_Kurkela]

I'm sorry, but your server has an entry-level SATA RAID controller that is different from the SmartArray family of RAID controllers that is the norm on HP server hardware.  Therefore, the pool of people that could definitively answer your question is much smaller than usual.

I have never seen a ML310 G4 in person. However, I can read the manuals for it just fine. The first step is reading the "HP Embedded SATA RAID Controller User Guide": it tells me the name of the controller configuration utility is "Storage Manager" and how to rebuild a RAID1 array after one of its disks has been replaced.

The next step is reading the "Storage Manager User Guide": it's very light on details and suggests that the on-line help has more information. But one thing the guide *does* say is that the Storage Manager *can* be used to extend logical drives.

So, based on this documentation only, my plan would be:

1.) Make sure the Storage Manager software is installed on the system and familiarize myself with it (i.e. start it up, read the information it presents, browse through the menus, identify the buttons in the GUI, look at the online help regarding extending a logical drive). Make sure both existing physical drives are OK at this point; if not, be absolutely sure you can identify which drive is good.

2.) Shutdown the server, remove one of the disks and install one of the larger disks in its place. (If one of the disks was faulty, definitely pick the bad one for replacement.) Follow the instructions in the Embedded SATA RAID Controller User Guide to start the rebuild operation.

3.) Wait for the rebuild to finish. Confirm that the Storage Manager indicates the array is healthy again.

4.) Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the other disk.

5.) Once both old disks have been replaced with new, bigger disks and the rebuild is completed, use the Storage Manager to extend the logical drive to use the added capacity of the new disks and/or to create new logical drives according to your requirements.

6.) Done!

If the Storage Manager is not installed, you can find it here if your OS is among the supported ones for this server model.

[Les Garten]

Hi,

    Thanx for your help here.  I am now onsite and having some problems.   I had migrated everything to the New Drives with no problems, but the embedded ROM does not show an option for expansion.

I took one of the drives out and put it in a SATA/USB gadget and expanded with GPARTED and you most likely know how that turned out. Drive wouldn't finish loading the OS.

So now I rebuilding/resyncing the drives.(New Ones)

My probelm with HP's Driver and software site is what the call their software.  It's hard as hell to figure it out with respect to what to use.

For instance, this is an LSI 1068 Controller.  No where is LSI mentioned on their site.  So trying to figure out what will work if you haven't been to HP school is a PITA.

The MegaRAID utility had no options to do anything re: expension, so I'll see if the ACU will work after the 6 hour sync job finishes.

[Les Garten]

@Matti_Kurkela

Thanx for the reply.  Im sure stuck presently.

The LSI MegaRAID Storage Manager does not have the extendvolume option as far as I can tell.

The HP Storage Manager does not work with this controller.

I have the New drives in place fine, just need to expand the volume.

It looks like Imay have to scratch the array and redo it with the partition setup correctly.  I have not found a way to expand it. 

How would you recomend I do this?

 I need to get this done in the next 24 hours or so.  I still have the original drives.  I have the new drives with the same size partiotions.  I also have images backed up with R-Drive Image maker.