ML350 G3, SMART ARRAY 641 and RAID 1

[Leonard MOR]

Have a Proliant ML350 G3 equipped with a SmartArray 641 card and 2x36Gb disques installed as RAID 1 with 2 volumes on the disk and containing Windows 2003 Server.

Need to increase the capacity of this disk array so plan to create a disk image (using PowerQuest) on a SAN, replace the disks with 2x72Gb disks, create a RAID 1 array using the SmartArray utility and then restore the image from the SAN to the new volume (redimensionning the 2 volumes on the disk at the same time).

My first question concerns the Smart Array functioning. Is the RAID 1 information stored in the Smart Array controler or on the disks (or maybe both)? In other words, if I took the 2 existing disks and installed them in an identical server with the same SmartArray card, would this controller recognise the 2 disks as already forming a RAID 1 array volume or is it necessary to recreate (somehow) the array volume information ?

Second question : The way I propose to do the upgrade seems to me to be the safest since the original array volume is not modified in any way. But perhaps soone can recommend a better way?
For example, creating a second array volume with the 2 new disks and doing a volume to volume copy and redimension?

Grateful for any ideas.

[James ~ Happy Dude]

Hello Mor,

1) Yes, Based on DISK ROAMING ability; this should be detected as RAID in the new server, provided you setup RAID in controller BIOS.

2) I am not sure about the way you tried.

However, I would have replaced one Disk at a time.
>Replace first 36 GB Disk with 72Gb
>Wait until RAID is rebuilt
>Replace the 2nd
>Extend the Logical drive using the Unused space.

Regards,
James.