Can RAID0-1 HDD config be converted to...

[JWalkI]

I have here IBM X235 with 3x36GB HDDs connected to ServeRAID5i controller. My coleague made a mistake in configuration and created 3 arrays (1 for each HDD) with mode RAID0 for each (that was monts ago). But the configuration should have been - 2 HDD in 1 Array (RAID1 mode - mirroring) and the last one as backup HDD. On the first Array(=1. HDD) is already installed and configured OS W2K Server, the two other HDDs are empty. Is there a way to convert the first Array to RAID1, add one of the two empty HDDs to it as a mirror without losing data on the first HDD (where is already W2K Server, configured and running)?? ServeRAID controller has BIOS ver. 5.11.05,firmware ver.5.11.05. Thx in advance for any help.

JWalkI

 

[JWalkI]

So I found out, that its impossible to convert RAID0 with 1 HDD (so its nothing close to raid with only 1 HDD) to RAID1 on 2 HDDs without data loss. I will try to create RAID1 array on the 2 other empty HDDs and copy the OS&data from the first HDD to this Array. Which tool should I use to copy it in the easiest way? (Ghost, ImageDrive, something from Acronis...?)

And I have a second question. We have new 140GB HDD Ultra320 SCSI drive, which the owner planned to integrate to the x235 server (with 3x36GB, and future config on these should be 2xHDD in an Array with RAID1 mode and the last HDD as hot-spare or unused). Is there a way to create an array on ServeRAID5i controller with RAID1 with 1x36GB and 1x140GB in such a way that we can use the remaining capacity of the 140GB HDD for other data (140-36GB= cca 104 unformated)or is the remaining capacity automatically lost?? Thx in advance for any comments on this.

 

[klunde]

If you want to add the 140Gb disk into an array with a smaller one the raid will never use more than the smallest disk. Sorry

</Morten>

 

[JWalkI]

Thx for answer, I thought so, but hoped for other type of answer ;-)

I have other problem now, we used older version of ServeRAID Manager on W2K Server (ver. 5.1.something) but we had to upgrade all BIOS/FWs on our server due to the new 140GB HDD we added lately and as I read in readmes we also had to upgrade the actual ServeRAID Manager SW installed on the server. I removed the old version 5.1.something and installed the new 7.1.something(after I updated device driver to the latest version for the ServeRAID5i controller of course) and the ServeRAID Manager does not start at all. If I want to start it the usual way nothing happens, no error windows, no errors in logs, all services needed for this are running (at least I think so) but just nothing I tried to remove it once again, restart server, installed new, restart server, with the same result. If I use ServeRAID manager from the startable CD it works fine, but we have to use the Windows version, so we can keep the server online. Has anyone clue how to solve this? Thx in adv for any comment

 

[JWalkI]

So if anyone is interested I solved the issue with ServeRAID Manager not executing itself (without any error). I figured out, that if its java applications its possible that the problem lies within somewhere within Java. The standard installation of ServeRAID Manager comes with unspecified JRE (I didnt tried to find some info about its version and vendor etc.). I installed the newest version of Java from SUN (nowadays JRE5.0 update 3) and reconfigured the main shortcut icon to point to the new SUN Java (and not the IBM delivered one) the shortcut after the changes looks like:

"C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_03\bin\javaw.exe" -Djava.compiler=NONE -Xms64m -Xmx128m -cp RaidMan.jar;DirLibs.jar;snmp.jar;collections.jar;jcchart450J.jar;sax2.jar;xerces.jar com.ibm.sysmgt.raidmgr.mgtGUI.Launch

After this "procedure" ServeRAID Manager is again running without any trouble.