Convert RAID 1 to RAID 5

[AmarReddy]

Is it possible to convert RAID 1 to RAID 5 without loosing data,OS, and partition on RAID 1 drives while converting to RAID5 ?

[rabindra11sharm]

Dear  AmarReddy

I have not seen that kind of conversion RAID 1 to RAID 5, because both are different technology. Its observed that many peples are claiming that they can do this type of activity. In my point of opinion, Please take full data backup. Delete the existing RAID configuration. Create new array with RAID 5, install OS, create partitions as per your requairment, restore your data. 

I found some blogs for converting RAID1 to RAID5 volumes activity which I never performed, so I did not support this. Any ways I am sharing the details below but make sure doing any activity Please get full data backup, not perform this type of activity on production running environment as HPE always recomends.

Proccess to converting RAID 1 to RAID 5

Perquisites

You must check your server controller specification, This type activity supports. You must make sure your array controller cache has a good battery. extra drives are not a part of any existing array and your BBWC is active.
If the battery says it's bad (and that happens a lot on these older servers), it disables the write cache and it also disables other features like online expansion.

Process
All you need to do is insert the new drives and then add all of them to the existing array. Once that's done you can do an online raid level migration with expansion.
It can take a while to do online migration/expansion, so be prepared for a few hours between when you start and when it's all done.
You can adjust the priority of the migration and expansion tasks in the advanced settings of the SSA utility but making it run at higher priority will affect the running system's I/O speed. If it's important to keep your apps running smoothly, leave it set at low priority and just let it take as long as it needs for each step.

https://community.hpe.com/t5/proliant-servers-ml-dl-sl/convert-raid-1-to-raid-5/td-p/6569804

[Cali]

I've done it a few times, if the RAID controller supports it, it works.

Cali

[AmarReddy]

Below is the Raid controller details. -- ProLiant DL380 Gen10 -- HPE Smart Array P408i-a SR Gen10

[AmarReddy]

HI Cali,

Please share me the steps if you have.

[Cali · Accepted solution]

For sure, you can find it here: HPE Smart Storage Administrator GUI User Guide

Look for Logical Drive > Migrate RAID

Cali

[AmarReddy]

HI Cali,

HPE Smart Array P408i-a SR Gen10 will support to migarte Raid1 to Raid5 right ?

[Cali]

See here in the Manual:
https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00019059en_us&page=GUID-39C0954F-5604-480D-A12E-74E11F9BA94F.html#ariaid-title1

Cali

[support_s]

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