Extend RAID 5 with additional bigger Hot-Drive in ProLiant ML350p Gen8

[VIE_Tom]

Hi all,

I have RAID 5 with 3x 3TB Hot-Swap Drives running and want to extend with one additional 4TB Hot swap drive.

Unfortunatelly the 3TB modell is not available anymore in Europe in brand new condition, so i can buy refurbed (which i don't want to) 
or a 4 TB version in new cond.

I know that with the 4TB version I would loose 1TB but that wouldn't be a big problem for me.,
bigger question is if the 3x3 TB works with the additional 1x4 TB without probs.

Did anybody try it out?

[TVVJ]

Hello,

You can add extra hard drives to the RAID array, expand it and then extend the logical drive to use the additional space.

Before performing this activity, ensure that valid backup of server's data is present and downtime has been scheduled.

The drives being added should of the same type as those present in the RAID array.

First, the drives needs to be made part of the logical drive. Once they have been added to a logical drive, then the logical drive's capacity can be extended to the additional capacity so added.

You may add the drives to the logical drive using the setting "Add Drives(s) - Expand Array" under section "6.15.1 Managing Data Drives" on page 31 of the HPE Smart Storage Administrator GUI User Guide for GUI access or section "7.3.24 Expanding an Array" on page 29 of the HPE Smart Storage Administrator CLI User Guide for CLI access.

You may download the HPE Smart Storage Administrator for the relevant operating system.

Alternatively, you may also perform these steps from within the Intelligent Provisioning by launching HPE Smart Storage Administrator.

Also, please ensure that the hard drives being intended for additional capacity are of the same type of hard drive such as SAS or SATA and I/O speed as that of those already in the array. Also, if additional drives are the same type but work at a lower speed, then the speed of the entire array will be that of the lowest speed drive. Also, if any of the additional hard drive installed has a higher storage capacity than that of the drive in the array, that extra space is not utilized as part of the array. Hence, it would pertinent to have the drives having the same option or spare part numbers!

Regards,

[BPSingh]

Greetings!

I presume the drives are HPE-branded. 
Please verify that the drive type is consistent (SAS/SATA). 
While your proposed configuration should function, be aware that 1TB might remain unused. 
Prior to any actions on the storage subsystem, it's advisable to perform a data backup.