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Re: RAID 5 Increasing Disk size

 
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Ian Ward
Advisor

RAID 5 Increasing Disk size

Picture this setup

1 x DL380 with 3 x 36Gb RAID5 - call this Serv1
1 x DL380 with 3 x 18Gb RAID5 - call this Serv2

I am in the process of replacing the 36Gb drives in Serv1 with new 72Gb drives.
I am replacing them one-by-one and allowing the RAID to rebuild between each one.
This works no problem and I can then allocate the new free space to Netware.

I now wish to replace the 18Gb drives in Serv2 with the 36Gb drives that came from Serv1 using the same procedure.
Will I have any problems.
I am sure I have read somewhere that the disk holds RAID configuration info as well as the RAID controller.
Will things get confused if I put a disk that has come from one RAID into a different RAID or will everything work OK.
6 REPLIES 6
Andy McCreath
Frequent Advisor

Re: RAID 5 Increasing Disk size

Morning, we do this all the time, no blanking process required. Great re-utilisation of disks this method.

I assume you know about the DISKPART tool to expand the disks from DOS or are you planning the ACU method?

All the best,
www.kimberly-clark.com
Ian Ward
Advisor

Re: RAID 5 Increasing Disk size

No I don't know about DISKPART, I was planning on creating a new Netware (NW6) partition in the free space and then expand the NSS pool to utilize the new partition.
Ian Ward
Advisor

Re: RAID 5 Increasing Disk size

Another related question.

Can a RAID disk in a DL380G2 be pulled whilst powered on even though the disk has not failed.
When we are swapping the disks we shut the server down to remove the old disk, boot it up with only two disks, then install the new larger disk once the system is up.

Some documentation says you can only pull a powered on disk if the fault light is on.
The Compaq white papaer on SMART array rebuilding implies you can pull the disk anytime.

Any comments would be appreciated.
Sunil Jerath
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: RAID 5 Increasing Disk size

Hello Ian,
I would definitely say a big NO. Based on the personal experience and some issues I had to go through with customers I would not suggest you pull the hdd out while it has not failed. Everytime someone did this one had to rebuild the server. The hdds are hot pluggable and not hot unpluggable.

Regards,
Michael Schulte zur Sur
Honored Contributor

Re: RAID 5 Increasing Disk size

Hi,

I am sorry, but disks of different size in a RAID 5 set? This is too much for my imagination. I would expect the new 72gb disk use only 36gb. Am I missing something?

scratching head,

Michael
Ian Ward
Advisor

Re: RAID 5 Increasing Disk size

Michael

Yes you are missing something, at the end of this process I will have all 72Gb drives in the RAID. At that point I will be able to create a new logical volume in the free space and then allocate that new logical volume to Netware.