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Albatross1953

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Create RAID 1 from non-RAID disk OMSA Perc 5/i

I had to reload a Dell Poweredge 2950 server and I only had one disk. How do I add another disk to create a RAID 1 array? I have OMSA Perc 5/i, but it will only create a global hot spare. There is no rebuild option. Connector 0 & 1 both say RAID. Physical Disk 0 says online, physical disk 1 says ready. Disk 1 is assigned as a global hot spare. Virtual Disk says RAID 0, but there was obviously no striping because there was only one disk. Virtual Disk does have options to Reconfigure or Change Policy.
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Neil Russell
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And that is exactly what I said. Backup, delete array, create a new one, restore.
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Stampel

yes except i explained he will have to use 3rd party software and with Acronis you can make this.
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I'm not familiar with Dell servers, but it looks that it is possible to reconfigure the array. Please take a look at this link:
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/enterprise_videos/ss_raid?c=us&l=en&s=gen&DoNotRedirect=y
At the bottom you have -  How to reconfigure an array using OpenManage Storage Services (2:00) video.
Probably when you will select another disk in the wizard you will have options to create RAID0 or RAID1.
Anyway when you "play" with RAID configuration you should always have a valid backup and/or a disk image.
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davorin: That all looked good except only RAID 0 was available. The others are grayed out. The Virtual Disk Layout is RAID 0 even though only one  disk is in use. Reconfigure is an available option before entering the wizard. I wish this would work. It would save me a lot of on site time imaging & restoring.
I'm not sure about your procedure.
When you select virtual disk on the left side of OMSA you see RAID 0 in the main part of the window. Then you there select "reconfigure" between available tasks and "execute".
In the step 1 of 3 you probably have one selected disk and one unselected disk on the left side. Select unselected disk and click "continue". At the step 2 of 3 you should have "RAID level" options. As now you have selected two disks, you should see two options - "raid-0" and "raid-1". You are saying that here you have "raid-1" option greyed out?
What version of OpenManage are you using?
When you select virtual disk on the left side of OMSA you see RAID 0 under Layout in the main part of the window on Virtual Disk 0 which opens to be Physical Disk 1. Then you can find "reconfigure" from the drop down under "available tasks".
If I don't do anything there but go to Virtual Disk Wizard instead, then either Express Wizard  or Advanced Wizard, everything is greyed out except RAID-0.
There is no + next to Connector 1 in the left pane like in the video. It is in a Ready state with no task available.
If you open Connector 0, then Enclosure, then Physical Disk, it shows both Physical Disks with Disk 0 Online & Disk 1 Ready.
You are probably using "Go to create virtual disk wizard" on the top of the window?
As I understand this is normal, because this wizard should be used to CREATE a new virtual disk. You have only one disk free, so the wizard is offering you what it can do with a single disk. This wizard will not touch existing virtual disks.

You need to perform an operation on existing virtual disk. From available tasks choose "Reconfigure" and click on "execute" link in the same line. It will open a different wizard, which will allow you to change existing virtual disk. The wizard will not do anything until you press "finish" in the 3rd step.
It won't work because the new disk is set to be a global hot spare so there's no spare disk in the system. That disk needs removing from spares first.
I removed it as a global hot spare & it still had no rebuild option. I'll make an image of the disk for backup when the office is closed tomorrow & try to create a new array.
You just cant do this directly from existing drive :
- Make a backup of working files (very important)
- Make a disk image
- Create RAID1
- Restore Image on RAID
Good luck