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I have an HP DL360 G8 with a Smart Array P420i with 3 physical drives, currently setup RAID 0, I would like to migrate to RAID 5.

When using the Smart Storage GUI when I attempt to migrate the drive I am only offered RAID 0 and the option of changing Stripe size.

In the Smart Storage Admin CLI if I issue

=> ctrl slot=0 ld 1 modify raid=5

I get a response of 

Error: "raid=5" is not a valid option for logicaldrive 1

So far I can't figure our why I'm not offered the RAID5 options, 3 drives are in the current RAID0 array

What do I need to do to migrate this server to RAID 5 without a reinstall please.

=> ctrl all show config

Smart Array P420i in Slot 0 (Embedded)    (sn: 0014380305E6840)

array A (SAS, Unused Space: 0  MB)


  logicaldrive 1 (838.1 GB, RAID 0, OK)

  physicaldrive 1I:1:1 (port 1I:box 1:bay 1, SAS, 300 GB, OK)
  physicaldrive 1I:1:2 (port 1I:box 1:bay 2, SAS, 300 GB, OK)
  physicaldrive 1I:1:3 (port 1I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 300 GB, OK)

SEP (Vendor ID PMCSIERA, Model SRCv8x6G) 380 (WWID: 50014380305E684F)
ewwhite
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Great Big Al
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2 Answers2

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RAID0 has no redundancy (just striped) and there is not a direct migration path to RAID5. You will need to backup your data, change to RAID5, then restore your data to the new array.

JamesRyan
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The Smart Array P420i has the option of shrinking the array and performing data transformation from there. It's an advanced operation, but is entirely possible. It depends on the specific filesystem and OS sitting atop the array as well. I wouldn't recommend that because your situation here was a bit preventable.

Take a look at: What are the different widely used RAID levels and when should I consider them?

But it seems you're in a bit of a mess. You have a 900GB raw array, but would like RAID5 protection. If you want to get to that point without a reinstall or the complex procedure I mentioned above, you can simply add another 300GB SAS disk and perform an array transformation from RAID0 to RAID5.

That can all be done online without downtime, provided your RAID controller has a flash-backed cache unit (FBWC).

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ewwhite
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