Extending Raid 5 on HPE DL380 G10

[Reza_F]

Hi

I have HPE DL380 G10 server with 4 SAS hards each 2.4TB with raid 5. I wanted to add another 2 x 2.4TB hards and extend the raid. I have installed vmware esxi 8.0.2 on server. So I hava these questions:

1- Is there any way to add those 2 hards without downtime?

2- How long does is take for these 2 hards to add to the raid?

[rabindra11sharm]

Dear Reza_F

You can extend your RAID5 volume.with newly installed two drives as you told. RAID5 Expension .

ESXI datastore Expension.

Prequsites for the proccess.

1.  you need same part no HDD installed in empty slot.

2. Do you have at 512 MB of BBWC on this controller.

3. You will need this BBWC for the expansion to work.

4. Take full data backups before doing any activity for disaster recovery.

If need more concern, feel free reach us, we will happy to help you.

[Reza_F]

I have HPE Smart Array P408i-a SR Gen10. How long does it take for 5 TB hards to initialize on raid 5? and how can I do that without downtime?

[rabindra11sharm]

Dear  Reza_F 

RAID expension is time takeing proccess. it may takes around 24hrs or more. It will be safe to take VMDK files backup, and all vms in maintanance mode.