Is it possible to add more hard disks to RAID10 while keeping it online?

windows-server-2008 raid dell

12,423

Solution 1

should be possible, using OMSA. go into the raid controller configuration, and look for a drop down box that has the "reconfigure" option under the logical disk that is your raid10

Solution 2

i believe your server raid controller has Online Capacity Expansion feature- check your documentation.

Solution 3

Just remember, when Adding disks to RAIDs (online or not) it's a good idea to add one drive at a time, let the RAID to its thing and then add the next. I had a server halfway offline for two days while the raid rebuilt after adding two 500GB disks into a RAID5 array. Good thing I did it on a friday afternoon...

Your RAID should be extendible online, but double-check your backups anyway, before starting.

Note to self: Must thoroughly read question. Sorry.

Solution 4

I know this is an old thread but I was recently researching the same subject and need to expand a raid 10 with two additional drives. Unfortunately the definitive answer at this time is no.

This is an excerpt from the Dell Controller manual:

"An online virtual disk can be reconfigured in ways that expands its capacity and/or change its RAID level. Spanned virtual disks such as RAID 10, 50, and 60 cannot be reconfigured."

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Author by

eugeneK

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

eugeneK almost 2 years

I have RAID10 configuration with 6 HDD running on Dell PowerEdge 1950 via Powervault MD1000. I want to add two more hard drives to the array so the initial RAID10 will turn to one with 8 HHDs. Is it possible without rebuilding the whole array and losing all the data on it?
- Admin over 14 years
  
  Your question and title are inconsistent. Do you simply want to retain the data or do you also want to keep it on-line, meaning you want to add the drives without powering down?
- Admin over 14 years
  
  +1 Good question. I would think it would work very similar to the way you expand a Raid 5 array on a poweredge, which is done while online, but I'm curious to see an answer from someone who has tried.
- Admin over 14 years
  
  to John Gardeniers, I want to add two more drives to RAID10 array without restart or data loss. Restart less critical but data loss is.
- Admin over 14 years
  
  It depends on the RAID card you're using - can you add that to the question description? The 1950 can come with a few different cards, and the exact steps will vary on the card.
- Admin over 14 years
  
  I use PERC6/E card, this is the only way to connect MD1000 to the server.
Aaron over 14 years

-1 RTFM isn't a good answer.
phoebus over 14 years

That wasn't an RTFM, he told him exactly what to look for in the docs.
Brent Ozar over 14 years

In raid 10, you add capacity with pairs of drives at a time.
eugeneK over 14 years

Which doubles the the time to have both HHDs online
John Röthlisberger over 14 years

I agree with phoebus -- the key to look for here is "online capacity expansion", a feature that most enterprise hardware RAID controllers provide.
eugeneK over 14 years

andrws and John Röthlisberger, maybe my question was wrong. I know that on the paper you can do that but my question was from your experience not about ability... sorry for misleading question.
Dave M over 11 years

Can you indicate why? Some controllers have the ability to do this including many Dell controllers.
GoYun.Info almost 9 years

I don't know why this answer is accepted. I didn't see "reconfigure" option under the logical disk. And DELL support told me that "Spanned virtual disks such as RAID 10, 50, and 60 cannot be reconfigured"