ProLiant ML115: Change simple SATA to RAID??

[icargill]

I have a HP Proliant ML115 G5 with two SATA drives installed as C: (400Gb) and D: (500Gb) with no RAID configured.

I want to make the server a bit more resiliant, and consequently would like to make use of the built-in RAID and convert it to use Raid 1. My plan was to buy two more drives; each identical to one of the the current drives, and install them so that I end up with

C: 2 x 400Gb in RAID 1 = 400Gb
D: 2 x 500Gb in RAID 1 = 500Gb

Ideally, I would like to do this without all the hassle of a complete OS reinstall, so would someone know if there is a way of converting the existing setup to RAID??

E.g. If I configure RAID, add the drives on the correct SATA connectors, and then power up, will the RAID just detect the new drive and rebuild it from the existing drive?

Or is it (as I suspect) a bit more compicated than that?? :)

[ALV_1]

I saw your post, and thought this might help. I am NOT an expert, so wait for others to confirm before taking action, but I think it is as simple as you hope. Note in the doc, it is specific about ML 110 G3 loosing data, but not other models...

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=c00851490&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Another idea to test what happens on you model: Take the two new drives, and use slots 2 and 3. Create one as a volume just exactly like what you have that you think might get deleted. Put some files on it to have something to look for. Then walk through creating a RAID to the other drive, and see if the data gets blown away. Personally, I am one who always likes to walk through it once before doing it for real whenever I can.

[ALV_1]

Reading down through the document, I will have to ammend my post and agree that it looks likely you will loose the contents of the original drive. It does seem to have the caveat of loosing data on all sections.

Another idea: It does not use the HP array, but would get you where you want to be without reinstalling the OS to just use Windows Disk Management to create the mirrors?

I'll be watching to see if there is a better solution.

[RaMpaNTe · Accepted solution]

You may want to try the following steps, this is not proven to work every time so do backups before attempting any change in the storage subsystem.

The reason why is that these low end servers and its controllers are not designed nor they support RAID migration and other features that are supported in Smart Array controllers and in other servers. The ML115 G5 supports as optional part the e200 Smart Array controller which will make your life easier since you can migrate RAID levels among other stuff.

Migrating from JBOD to RAID 1
* Press Ctrl-A during POST or F8 to get into the Controller set up.
* Select Array Configuration Utility in the Main Menu.
* Select Configure Drives.
* Press the Insert key when each drive is highlighted. This will put the drives in the box named Selected Drives.
* Press Enter to complete the selections.
At this point you will receive a message saying that data will be lost; there is no way to do this without the message popping up.
* Select Y to continue.

The Main Menu screen appears.
* Select Create Array. Press the Insert key when each drive is highlighted. This will put the drives in the box named Selected Drives.
* Select Enter to complete the selections.

The Array Properties window appears.
* Select RAID 1 (Mirror).
* Label the Array under Array Label.
* Under Create RAID Via, select Build.

A Select Source Drive window appears.
* Select the drive to which data will be built. The following message will be displayed:

Building the RAID 1 may take a half hour or more to complete. Do you still want to continue (Yes/No):
* Select Y to begin the creation of the RAID 1 Array.

Here is another way in case the BIOS in the box has changed or if the options are quite different than the one I described:

* Press F8 and go to Sata Raid BIOS->Configure the Drives->Create Array->Raid0/1 A warning message will appear "Warning: Configuring the drives will erase all Array information from the selected drives, if that drive is part of an array. Arrays using any of these drives as members will be affected! Do you want to continue?(Yes/No):". Press "Y" to continue.

* If Raid 1 is selected it will ask you what is the Source Disk, select the Right Disk in which OS was installed previously. Warning message might appear again. Select "Y".

* Rebuild will take sometime, once rebuild is complete restart the server.

************************
This is really important
************************

Windows might not recognize the controller as a bootable device and in fact will fail to load because the driver for the controller is required. So you NEED to do the following PRIOR to doing anything else.

* Download and extract the Embedded SATA RAID Drivers to a temporary folder.

* Go to Control Panel-> Add New Hardware->Device is connected->New Hardware->Raid Controller->Have Disk->Browse the folder where the Embedded SATA RAID Drivers were extracted to. Select the .inf file->Install Raid Driver.

* Restart the Server goto BIOS enable the Embedded SATA RAID.

* Proceed with the above steps.

Please let me know the outcome of this.

Here is the link where you can download the drivers from:
HP 4/8 Internal Port SAS HBA with RAID and SCxxGe series HBA Driver for Windows Server 2003 http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3683705&prodNameId=3683706&swEnvOID=1005&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-3adf009917004138afdfd115cb

HP 4/8 Internal Port SAS HBA with RAID and SCxxGe series HBA Driver for Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3683705&prodNameId=3683706&swEnvOID=1113&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-3bad6a5d8e9c4487a4cd73fc6d

HP 4/8 Internal Port SAS HBA with RAID and SCxxGe series HBA Driver for Windows Server 2008
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3683705&prodNameId=3683706&swEnvOID=4022&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-f3e7814082cf484eb83bd0362b

HP 4/8 Internal Port SAS HBA with RAID and SCxxGe series HBA Driver for Windows Server 2008 x64 Editions
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3683705&prodNameId=3683706&swEnvOID=4024&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-ea2012e21b964c239888f046ba

Thanks,
\RaMpaNTe

[RaMpaNTe]

Hey.. so ddid it work? What was the outcome?

BTW... Say thanks with points.

[Clayton McCauley]

The drivers available through HP for the SCxxGe SAS HBAs will not extract on a host that:

a) doesn't have the HBA
b) is the wrong version of windows (ie anything other than WinSvr2xxx)

It would be nice if HP would provide a zip file or a dumb installer that would actually allow you to extract the drivers on another system. (I've already tried Vista, XP Pro, and WinSvr 2003 on a DL360...) I'm about to make a BartPE disk based on WinSvr2003 just so I can attempt to extract this file on the actual hardware.

[Clayton McCauley]

I finally found a way to get this server up and running. (DL145 G3 in my case) The SCxxGe HBA installed is actually just an LSI Logic SAS1068e HBA. The drivers can be found on their site in a zip file that can be easily extracted on virtually any platform.

http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/standard_product_ics/sas_ics/lsisas1068e/index.html?remote=1&locale=EN

Once I had a working set of drivers, OS installation was a breeze through the LO100i remote console.

[icargill]

Sorry, have been out of circulation for a while, all the information supplied has been very useful. I will award points to the replies. Thanks.

[Pradeepdanthi]

Dear All,

I have a query if someone can answer...

one of our customer has HP ML115 G5 server went down due to mother board failure, we had to replace the server board.

After replacing the systemboard we found that disk management showing 2 physical drives and double logical volumes, later we found that RAID was not enabled in the BIOS and we enabled it, but the raid status was rebuild for whole night and even next day as well, O/S dint boot as it did earlier, it started giving some directory services error and continually restarting, ultimately we had to rebuild the entire server from the scratch.

can anyone tell me the exact cause of the problem, is it because we connected the hard drives and booted the server without enabling the RAID in the BIOS or something else?

Please answer...................