Easiest way to replace all the disks in a RAID 1 array

[mikkydoos]

Hi all,

 

I'm running out of space on my Virtual host running VMWare Esxi - Haven't got a replica server yet.

I'm doing this in order to free up a physical server to use a replication server but need more space.

 

Currently have 2 x 1tb Disks in a RAID 1 array with a hot spare.

 

 

I've got 4 spare disk slots in the server so I can build a new array with bigger disks.

 

How will I copy the first array's data over without having to do a re-install of VMWare?

Edited June 8, 2015 by mikkydoos

[tmcd35]

Will your RAID controller allow you to add more drives to the existing array and expand the disk size?

[mikkydoos]

My reason for posting is that I'm presuming that if I add a 4TB disk to a 1TB disk array it will only build the array on the disk as 1TB regardless of size, unless you mean let the array populate the new disks then remove the originals, then increase it.

 

I don't know if that will work without trying it

Edited June 8, 2015 by mikkydoos

[tmcd35]

Depends on the controller. Most modern controllers should expand the array so long as all the disks each side of the mirror are the same size.

 

So if you have 2x 1Tb drives in RAID1 now, and add 2x 4Tb drives, you should have 5Tb total.

 

If you replace 1x1Tb with 1x4Tb, then yes it will rebuild as 1Tb. However if you then replace the other 1Tb with another 4Tb, yes it will rebuild as 1Tb still - but most decent RAID controllers should then allow you to expand to 4Tb since all disks are now the same size.

 

All that said, assuming the RAID controller allows you to do all this, I'm not sure what the procedure is within ESX for then expanding the volume size in to the newly available space.

Edited June 8, 2015 by tmcd35

[mikkydoos]

Depends on the controller. Most modern controllers should expand the array so long as all the disks each side of the mirror are the same size.

 

But they wont be. Existing disks are 1TB. New disks will be 4TB

Edited June 8, 2015 by mikkydoos

[teejay]

It's easy if your RAID controller supports multiple RAID arrays, just stick the new disks in the spare drives, create a RAID array and then in VMWare just add the new array as local storage. You can then use migrate in VMWare to move the VM onto the new storage.

[mikkydoos]

Or this...

 

HP Support document - HP Support Center

 

Server is an HP DL360p Gen8 with the standard RAID controller.... hence RAID 1.

 

Not sure if the array will come out at 4TB though.

[mikkydoos]

It's easy if your RAID controller supports multiple RAID arrays, just stick the new disks in the spare drives, create a RAID array and then in VMWare just add the new array as local storage. You can then use migrate in VMWare to move the VM onto the new storage.

 

Leave the host OS on the first array then move the VM's onto the second.. or just create another datastore on the new array?

 

Could do it that way. Was thinking of moving it wholesale but that would provide more resilience @tjay.

 

Great idea. Cheers m8