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pjd
Asked: 2009-09-24 20:39:46 +0800 CST

Do dell perc 6i cards support online expansion of a raid 1 array when both drives have been replaced with larger ones?

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Do Dell perc 6i cards support online expansion of a raid 1 array when both drives have been replaced with larger ones?

For example the the Logical Drive 0 (LDO) has two member 73gb drives.

We have two new 147GB drives available and inserted into the spare slots of the server. (not worried about final drive location in system)

Can I remove each 73gb and replace it with a 147gb and then grow the raid 1 array using the MegaCli tools (version 4.00.11)?

Will the controller support online expansion?

What command switches are required to complete the reconstruction/grow/expand if supported?

Alternatively I will have to create a new LD on the controller (2x 147gb raid1), pvmove the data, and dd /boot over and reinstall grub etc.

linux

2 Answers

  1. That doesn't seem possible in PERC 6/i controllers.

    You could break the RAID-1 volume, replace the drive with a bigger one and create a RAID-0 volume on it. Migrate the data, do the software configuration and replace the remaining disk. Not as easy as online expansion though.

    You don't mention which software you use but if it is ZFS, you could follow the suggestion above and attach the new RAID-0 volume to the existing disk. Later you destroy the degraded RAID-1 volume, create a RAID-0 on top of the new disk and attach it to the disk. It's very easy.

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  2. From what I`ve derived from James comment it seems you can use the same method as with any virtual disk: Shut down the OS, resize the disk without changing vital parameters (the geometry of the vdisk and stripe size have to stay the same). So if your vdisk geometry after the new size has just more cylinders it should work.

    But - this is offline, of course.

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