I can't believe this appears to be impossible:

HP DL360G5 / DL380G5 / DL385G2 all use P400 array controllers (SAS drives)

Initially, we created a single array (array A) with a single logical drive consisting of a single physical disc.

We now want to add another disc to the logical drive / array to have RAID 1 mirror redundancy.

This simple feat seams impossible.

The ACU is a pile of ****e. The only thing you can do to an existing array is delete it.

The CLI is the most illogicle pile of scripting ****e I've ever come across. When I try and do things such as add a spare to array A, all I get is a "This operation is not supported with the current configuration." message.

The only "solution" I can think of is deleting the array and starting again, i.e. wipe everything and reinstall the OS from scratch. If it were one or two servers, I wouldn't mind, but I have 50 to turn from single drive to dual drive RAID 1 setups :eek:

So I have a horrible feeling you just can't do it.

FFS, what else would one want to do ?!?!?!?!?!? Get the impression this is annoying me?

Its the same for all HP array controllers, from a single disk you cannot convert to mirroring. they do let you add disks from raid 5 arrays. What I have done in the past is use symantec ghost to image the existing drive, destroy the array, create the new one and re-image from the backup copy.

What he said....

Well, I've found out you can! However, you need to have the battery back up cache module fitted!

Some of our servers have them (big databases) and in the ACU, go to the logical drive and you can manage / migrate RAID levels and whatnot. However, if you go to server which doesn't have this cache fitted, the option is just not shown on the right

I just wish that they made the requirement of the BBUC module a bit more obvious - I found out by accident comparing the beefiest server we had (which has the BBUC and a large MSA 1000 storage chassis connected via FC) which of course shows the options and our normal servers which don't.

Question is: is it better to rebuild from scratch or ghost and restore like Manny says, or do I "borrow" the cache module and go round plugging it into server after server to have the migrate to RAID1+0 feature available and then remove it afterwards!

edit: if you're interested, it's HP part number 405148-B21 HP RAID Controllers (405148-B21) specifications - HP Small & Medium Business products

If you borrow the BBUC module from a box, the chances of causing a hdware fault is higher than just imaging the disk.

How ever, depends if you have the imaging software and the correct controller drivers for said imaging software.

I can't believe this appears to be impossible:

HP DL360G5 / DL380G5 / DL385G2 all use P400 array controllers (SAS drives)

Initially, we created a single array (array A) with a single logical drive consisting of a single physical disc.

We now want to add another disc to the logical drive / array to have RAID 1 mirror redundancy.

This simple feat seams impossible.

The ACU is a pile of ****e. The only thing you can do to an existing array is delete it.

The CLI is the most illogicle pile of scripting ****e I've ever come across. When I try and do things such as add a spare to array A, all I get is a "This operation is not supported with the current configuration." message.

The only "solution" I can think of is deleting the array and starting again, i.e. wipe everything and reinstall the OS from scratch. If it were one or two servers, I wouldn't mind, but I have 50 to turn from single drive to dual drive RAID 1 setups :eek:

So I have a horrible feeling you just can't do it.

FFS, what else would one want to do ?!?!?!?!?!? Get the impression this is annoying me?

If I say for legal reasons I can't comment

You know where to find me

OK, so I'm now on a server with a battery backup cache.

In the same scenario, I seem screwed.

I currently have a SAS Array A with one Logicla Drive (RAID 0) which is composed of a single physical drive in slot 1.

The Array A also has a second physical drive (which used to be another logical drive which I have now removed). This drive is in slot 3 and appears as Unused space under array A.

I want to move this drive from slot 3 to slot 2. After that, I want to change the RAID level to make a RAID 1 mirror of logical drive 1. Again, this seems impossible. I can see no way of removing the unused drive from Array 1 (there's no remove)

Now if I just pull out the drive, the server throws a wobbly because I've removed a drive from an array although it's not used. And becuase the array has just a single logical drive as RAID 0, the other drive which I want to remove doesn't appear as a "spare"

Any ideas?

I would do a ghost like Auroan suggested (I have one with appropriate SAS controller drivers) but my worry is that some data which holds the array configuration is actually stored on the drives, so when I restore the image after creating my array, the data on the hdd will return to the original configuration.

:(

I still can't believe how impossible this trivial task seems to be!

The OS shouldn't know what is running underneath it if its a hardware raid. All the OS sees is a disk, nothing else. so as long as the controller doesn't change then an image grab/restore would be fine.

The OS shouldn't know what is running underneath it if its a hardware raid. All the OS sees is a disk, nothing else. so as long as the controller doesn't change then an image grab/restore would be fine.

I agree, I just heard that the P400 does something with the MBR..... I guess I'll have to suck it and see as they say (very common phrase at the moment )

Some drive arrays and RAID controllers do change the data at the start of the drive which means the drive is useless outside of that drive array.

On some systems backing the drive up and then trying to delete the array will cause the array to revert to just the single disk if there is only one in use as a logical drive.