Raid 5 Option Not Available - Server 2003 1

[SaturnSeven]

I am trying to set up Raid 5 on my MS Server 2003 R2.
All 3 Disks have been split 20GB and 130Gb
All 3 Disks are been converted to Dynamic
Disk 0 and 1 are mirrored and have OS installed (in the 20Gb partition)
My plan is to set up the 3 lots of spare 130Gb in Raid 5.
But I can not get the options to be available from the New Volume Wizard.

Am I missing something here?
Any pointers will be greatly appreciated.

 

[wahnula]

Are you tring to get all 3 disks to be RAID 1 AND RAID 5? Or are there 5 discrete disks? First, Dynamic Disks are only for the MS software RAID. If there are only (3) disks then you can have RAID 1 with a hot spare, but not RAID 1 and RAID 5 using the same disks (to the best of my knowledge)

I would recommend a discrete hardware RAID 5 array using another RAID controller (like the 3ware 9500s series). Is there more than one RAID controller? If so, connect (2) disks to the RAID 1 array and create a discrete RAID 5 array using at least 3 other drives. Some servers allow you to use one controller to build them both, but they are created in RAID BIOS or the server utility, not through Disk Management. And you must have the sufficient number of drives to begin with.

You can create a RAID 5 array with the disks using one controller, but they would need the OS on one partition and the data on the other and involve all (3) disks. Questions:

1. How many HDDs are there total?
2. What brand is the server and utility?

Tony

 

[SaturnSeven]

Tony
I have 3 HDD.
The server isn't branded. It's home made.

 

[wahnula]

The server isn't branded. It's home made.

Good for you! With 3HDD you are limited to a single array, preferably RAID 5. Questions:

1. What is the motherboard?
2. Are the drives IDE or SATA?
3. What type of hardware RAID controller do you have (usually embedded in MB, MB info should tell me this)
4. Were you planning on using software RAID within Windows?

Tony

 

[SaturnSeven]

Motherboard is a Foxconn RC4107MA
HDD's are SATA2 in a 3 bay hot swap backplane
I am trying to use Windows server 2003 R2 software for RAID

 

[wahnula]

Since your MB offers only RAID 0 & 1 via its onboard RAID controller, you will have to create the RAID 5 volume in Windows. Set all SATA ports to standard IDE in BIOS (not RAID), then follow these directions:

http://207.46.196.114/windowsserver...d94a-4127-849c-903576fb07df1033.mspx?mfr=true

Please note you will not be able to run both RAID 1 and RAID 5 with only 3 drives.

If it were my server, I would get two small drives, like 36GB Raptors, and run them in RAID 1 using the MB's RAID controller for OS & apps. Set the SATA ports to RAID in BIOS, then, in RAID BIOS, create the RAID 1 array, then install Windows. You will have to supply the RAID drivers using F6 during Windows setup. This is hardware RAID, arguably more reliable.

Next I would add in a PCI RAID controller like the 3ware 9500s series to create a RAID 5 volume for data, and connect it to the (3) drives in the cage. This will be the main storage volume, and you can relocate the Exchange store to the data array for more speed, if you're using Exchange.

In the future, posting in forum602 or forum751 will probably be most productive. Good luck!

Tony

 

[wahnula]

Oops...I forgot forum931

This is where the real Server 2003 gurus live.

Tony

 

[andyshriver]

Hello, All:
I have a Dell PE2600 with 5 36gb SCSI HDDs, 3 of which are RAID-5 and 2 of which are RAID-1. One of the RAID-5 drives has failed. The data on the partition located on the RAID-5 array takes up roughly 30GB. I feel reasonably confident that the HDD is the culprit, as the other 2 drives are fine. I have a spare drive identical to the 5 currently installed in the Dell machine. Given this info, how long should I expect to spend waiting for the array to regenerate and return to Healthy status? As you all can tell, I have never had to do this before, but I gather that my scenario is not nearly as bad as others I have read.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[wahnula]

andyshriver,

It's best to start a new thread for a new topic. Your RAID 5 should rebuild within a few hours. I am not familiar with Dell servers but do they not have a RAID utility to monitor the health of the arrays? If not, and you're the curious sort, you can always reboot and check the array status in BIOS as the system is booting.

Tony

 

[wahnula]

Also you will have better luck here: forum485