NT4 mirror to RAID 1 help??

[Marcel Bissonnette]

Hi here is the scenario...
NT4 server OS mirror
on 2 / 9Gb drives

Question: I'dd like to move the software mirror to the new NetRaid 1M card as RAID1 and also add 2 36GB drive for data???
Not sure how to proceed, should I break the mirror first, then plug into the NetRaid, then re-establish RAID1 ???

Thanks in advance,

Marcel B.

[Marco Hogeveen]

You should:
-install the correct drivers for the netraid 1M
-make a good backup!
-break the mirror
-connect the disks to the netraid
-create a RAID0 on the original bootdisk
-check to see if the server boots fine
-install netraid assistant
-add capacity by adding the second disk and change the raid-level to raid1

This should work

Marco.

[Marino Meloni_1]

hi
which kind of raid 1 did you have? it was a software raid or hardware raid?

Important: when you create the raid 0 with the original hdd, be sure to not initialize the raid, or youwill loose all your data

bye

Marino

[Marcel Bissonnette]

The current redundancy is software based mirroring. I would like to make it hardware. The current scenario uses 2 HD's and I plan on using both in the same fashion as I implement the hardware sollution with a NetRaid 1M card. My question was: is there any way in particular to do this so that I don't loose any data?

Also, will I need to change the boot.ini to reflect the new scis card??

[Marino Meloni_1]

hi
take in mind that if you plan to use a netraid to manage your boot hdd, you need th change also the configuration of NT (drivers)
you can try to follow the Marco suggestion
to be sure I suggest you to backup all you data, add the netraid, create the raid hardware, reinstall NT and then restore your data. in this way you can avoid instability and boot problem.But for shure you will loose time.
Bye

Marino

[Marcel Bissonnette]

thanks for the hint, unfortunately a re-install is not an option...

For sure a backup is a must, but there must be another way than to re-install the os?? Can't I just point to a different location in the boot.ini??

[Marco Hogeveen · Accepted solution]

Marcel,

Your boot.ini should stay the same!
For safety, you can set the mirror disk aside, until you??re sure that the netraid configuration works with 1 disk.
Then add the second disk and migrate to RAID1.
I??ve done this before on an LT6000r server and it worked just fine.

Good luck!

Marco.

[Marcel Bissonnette]

Would I have to initialise the first disk as RAID 0 then install the second disk and make the two RAID 1??

Will I need to initialize the second disk (original software mirror)

thanks for the help

[Marco Hogeveen]

You do NOT initialize!
Initializing the disk results in losing all your data.
The netraid express tools or netraid assistant prompts you to initialize the 'newly created logical disk' but you should skip it, since you don't want to loose your data!.
After you've done the first 4 points:
- You also might want to remove the driver of the internal SCSI adapter, where the disks were originally connected to, to prevent the server from trying to boot from it, resulting in an inaccesible bootdevice stop screen!
-install the correct drivers for the netraid 1M
-make a good backup!
-break the mirror
-connect the disks to the netraid
You boot the server and press Ctrl-M buring power on self test.
Go to
-Configure
- View Add/Delete configuration
- Place the cursor on your original primary boot disk (be sure you know the SCSI ID!)
- Press 'Space' followed by 'Enter'
- Press 'Escape'
- Save configuration? -> Yes
- Since you selected just 1 physical disk, the default configuration will be RAID0, you can use the default values.
- Accept
- Escape, escape, escape
- Do NOT initialize!
- Exit and reboot.
When your server succesfully has booted you must install Netraid assistant (from Navigator CD, or download from web).
There you can add the second disk:
- drag & drop the second disk (state READY) to the logical drive and select the correct RAID level (RAID1).
Migrating could take half an hour or more, depending on the speed of your disk subsystem.

Good luck!

Marco.