Proliant 1600 SmartArray 3200 remove drives

[Bram van Dartel]

Owkee...

The config is now like this:

Array A
- Logical disk(1) - 3x36.4 - RAID 5
- 3x72.8 - Unused Space

But the lights keep blinking.

[Michael Williams_6]

Ahh, the disks are now in the array, but are unnasigned. Firstly, have you saved your changes as this may make the light disappear.

If not, click on the "unused" space so it's highlighted and click the delete key.

It should then be removed from the array, save changes and let us know!

[Vijay_44]

Ok,
So you have deleted the logical drive and are now trying to reclaim the drives.

Bram ,
An array is a collecting or drives; when you create an array you get unused space, which comprises of all the drive in the array put together. When you create a logical drive, it spans across all drives in the array. A logical drive in the array uses all the physicals drives in an array. In your case you have 2 logical drive and both of them span across all the physical drives.
Now you have ended up with some free space and one logical drive; this free space is also spread across all physical drive.

You are right when you say that you will loose Logical Drive 1 if you try and remove three PHYSICAL drives - your RAID 5 Logical Drive 1 can handle the loss or just one PHYSICAL drive.

You cannot remove your 3 PHYSICAL drives from the array using the ACU without data loss. It is advisable to have different logical drives under different arrays so that changes to one do not affect the other.

[Bram van Dartel]

Heya...

I already had saved the configuration...

Then...

I've tried the del key on the unused space, but nothing happens then.

I also tried to modify the array and remove the physical disks, then I get the message that the complete array will be destroyed.

I've uploaded some pictures to our FTP...

ftp://bram:arraypr0bl3m@adsl.brabantalucastproducts.nl/a.bmp
ftp://bram:arraypr0bl3m@adsl.brabantalucastproducts.nl/b.bmp
ftp://bram:arraypr0bl3m@adsl.brabantalucastproducts.nl/c.bmp
ftp://bram:arraypr0bl3m@adsl.brabantalucastproducts.nl/d.bmp
ftp://bram:arraypr0bl3m@adsl.brabantalucastproducts.nl/e.bmp

[Bram van Dartel]

@Vijay

Damn, I thought that would be the problem cos the unused space wasn't 3 times 72.8 GB, so space had to be spanned.

Is there any way to free the 3 72.8 GB disks? Or do I really have to remove the array?

[Michael Williams_6 · Accepted solution]

Hi Bram, looks a little tricky doesn't it.

Could you do a Ghost of the contents of the array, delete the array and then restore the ghost??

In future, I would highly suggest you only have one disk per array!

[Vijay_44]

As far as I know you cannot reclaim your 3 physical drives from the array without reconfiguring.

[Bram van Dartel]

I`m going to do the following.

Make a ghost, then delete the Array, then create a new Array as in the old situation and put the ghost image back.

Tx for the quick help...I both gave you another 10 points.

I`ll let you know if it worked out, i`m going to start within 3 hours with the ghost.

[Bram van Dartel]

Hey, hey, perhaps I can remove the 72GB drives 1 by 1. Since it's RAID 5, the data will be put on the other disks. What do you think?

[Michael Williams_6]

I'm pretty sure that won't work, if you lose more than one disk in a RAID5 array then the array contents are pretty much lost...