Create a new RAID 1 with existing hard drive without losing data

[Sandeep9]

Hi All,

We have two internal disks in BL 460C G10 blade (in C7000) and on one of them the OS is installed and rest of the app data is also stored. The another disk is not in use.

Now, we want to create a RAID 1 from these disks. Is it possible to do this without losing data?

[Torsten.]

It depends.
If the dis currently is a RAID0 you can extend to RAID1, if it is a plain disk you need to backup and restore.

[Sandeep9]

Hi Torsten,

No, we haven't configured any raid, its just a separate disk.

Is there any way we could put these disk (one used + one used) in RAID1 and mirror the used disks data onto another disk.

[Torsten.]

It depends on what disk controller model is used.

[Sandeep9]

Hi Torsten,

We have "HPE Smart Array P204i-b SR Gen10" disk controller. FW - 2.62

[Torsten.]

I think it should be possible to create a RAID0 on the other drive, copy your data and finally extend the RAID0 to RAID1.

[Sandeep9]

Hi Torsten,

How to copy data? Are you talking about rsync?

[Jimmy Vance]

If currently the disk is not in a RAID array, there really isn't a simple path to get to where you want to be without destroying the data on the disk. 

[Torsten.]

Consider a disk cloner of your choice, clonezilla etc.
Depends on your OS.

[Sandeep9]

Hi Torsten,

If i use dd to clone the used hard disk with the another unsed one (which i add to RAID0), will it work?

Will the cloning of hard drive from dd in rhel7 will do tht work?

[AmRa]

Per HPE Smart Array P204i-b Controller Overview, the controller supports Migrate RAID/Stripe Size, A RAID migration allows you to convert a RAID-Ready system into a RAID 0, 1, 5, or 10 configuration, or from a RAID 0, 1, or 10 volume to a RAID 5 volume.

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-a00020050en_us

For more information on RAID migration, please refer HPE Smart Storage Administrator User Guide

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=c03909334

IMPORTANT: An array expansion, logical drive extension, or logical drive migration takes about 15 minutes per gigabyte. While this process is occurring, no other expansion, extension, or migration can occur simultaneously on the same controller. Controllers that do not support  battery-backed write cache do not support this process. As a best practice always take data backup before performing RAID migration.

Steps to migrate RAID 0 to RAIDX (where X is RAID level)

1. Access HPE Smart Storage Administrator.

2. In HPE Smart Storage Administrator, Select the controller, the Logical Devices on the left, the “Logical Drive 1” from “Array A” and then “Migrate RAID/Strip Size”

3.. The below image show what options you have – RAID 5 could be migrated to RAID 0 and RAID 5 Level

[Torsten.]

The problem is obviously, the data is on a non-RAID drive (HBA mode).

Hence the suggestion to clone to a RAID0 drive, then migrate RAID 0 to RAID 1.