ML370G5 RAID 2xP400's

[MMurfster]

OK, this is just a fun question: We have a 370G5 with 16x72GB SAS drives (yes, additional P400 controller and drive cage). Here's the question: can you mirror the 2 RAID 5 array's?

I've been through the ACU and discussions and the Tech forum. It seems nobody thought about it, but I keep hearing: "maybe". Anyone want to take a shot at an answer?

[ramesh_naik_ · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You must be a very high-end thinking techie....

Yes you can manage it with RAID 5+1 or 51.

Additional reference:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/mult.htm

But absolutely not sure about whether the P400 controller supports this!!!!


Regards,
rmn

[sandeep_raman]

Hello MMurfster,

If i am not wrong,the controller should support this feature.
I checked the specs for the P400 controller,it does'nt support raid 5+1.

What RAID levels are supported by the Smart Array P400?

The SA-P400/256 supports RAID 0, 1, 1+0 and 5. RAID 6 (Advanced Data Guarding) is available by adding either the BBWC upgrade or the 512 BBWC upgrade.

There's another interesting feature,

What is mirror splitting and recombining?

Mirror Splitting and recombining allows the user to divide a RAID1 array into 2 RAID0 array's. Later you can combine 2 RAID0 array's into a single RAID1 array. ACU allows the user to combine any two RAID 0 arrays of the same size together and select which drive contains the data that you want to keep. This feature is currently only available offline. The user must boot to the Smart Start CD and run ACU from there. Typically this feature is used when testing out a software patch. The user could split the mirror as a means to save the current data. They could then perform any type of destructive software update they choose and either keeps the resulting data set or revert back to the old data. Another application is cloning. BBWC is not required for this feature to be enabled.

SRH

[MMurfster]

OK, I think ramesh_naik might have hit it with 5+1, but it seems like it can only be done with Dynamic Disks via Win. I'm not sure if thats what I'm after. I would prefer hardware level raid, as opposed to the OS level.
So, here's what I've learned: Yes, it can be done at software level RAID; however, both volumes must be converted to dynamic disks. At that point you can create a mirror set, effectively giving you RAID5 mirrored (Actually, it would be ADG Mirrored). Is that 6+1?
Thanks for your help in pushing this around my pea brain for a bit.

[ramesh_naik_]

Hi,

Yes, RAID 5+0 and RAID 5+1 are variants of
RAID 6.

Regards,
rmn