New disks but having RAID Issues

[redwings]

I have just added 4 new hard drives to my SSA device but I have been unable to add them to the current RAID VG. I have tried to find a way to do it through SMIT and everything I tried just does not work. I can list but I can't modify the current setup. Does anyone know what needs to be done to get the new 4 drives to add to a current RAID Array?

OS AIX 4.3.3

 

[Chapter11]

You can't dynamically add or remove disks from a RAID5 array. The array will have to be rebuilt to add the new disks.

This is because the organization of data and parity in RAID5 is dependent on the number of disks - everything is sliced up evenly. By adding disks, the slice sizes all change, and you simply can't dynamically change that, it's too fundamental to the data layout structure.

 

[redwings]

If there is data on the disks that are in the array, will the data be lost if I delete the disks out of the array and then add them back in?

 

[Chapter11]

You will need to back up all of the data that's on the current array, and "unbuild" it - delete the array in smit. Then, rebuild it using all of the disks that you want to be members of the new array. Once that's up, rebuild all your LVM entries and start restoring.

 

[AIX5L]

Hi

If your have enough Free Disks in your Machine, extend the Volumegroup with the Disks an Migrate the Data on the flow to the new Disks, delete the RAId Array and rebuilt it.
Then you can remigrate the Data to the RAID-Disks.