Please help me regarding the hot swap...
 

We're having four 73G disks configured using Hardware RAID1. now i want to replace two 73G disks with 146G disks. Is that possible if i replace one 73G with 146G disk wait untill the data is mirrored and then replace the second 73G disk with 146G one...

i know it can be done with another pair of 73 G disks but i'm not sure whether anything happens if i use two different sized disks in RAID1.

Please help me regarding this issue.

Thanks..

If I remember correctly it will work, but it will only use 73G on the 146G disk, once you've swapped both of them you may be able to expand it but I've never tried it.

I seem to remember that the RAID would see (and use) the smaller size.

I think I would probably just backup the data and rebuild on the bigger disks.

If you do decide to try it, please let us know how it goes (and good luck :))

I've called Dell Guys and they suugested me we can do that .. but they told me to go to PERC controller and retag array and change the array policy settings and finally delete virtual disc in the controller setup ..


can u guys advice me whether is it a better procedure to try ..??

its a test box and actually the data is important on it .

please suggest me some procedure..

If it's Dell kit, I would go with their procedure.

However, before you do that make sure you have a complete backup of your data!

It's always better to have a backup that you may not need to use, than the other way around.

I would put together a machine build document first (you should have one of these for your DR documentation).

State:

• what OS (including revision)
• what components need to be selected
• what Kernel parameters need setting
• disk configuration (partition type, sizings, and mount options)

And anything else that may be relevant.

Ensure that you have the installation media available (just in case)

Thanks everyone for ur replies ... i've hot swapped two of the 73 G disks with 146G disks without losing any data.. As all of u guys mentioned , i have taken the full backup and implemented this procedure.

1. First step is to verify that you have a valid and tested backup of critical data.

2. Now you need to offline your first hard drive so that you can replace it with the new hard drive.
3. Now replace 1st hard drive and let it rebuild completely.
4. Repeat above procedure on each remaining hard drive until all have been replaced. Be sure to allow each hard drive to finish its rebuild before replacing additional hard drives or data will be lost.
5. Now it is time to go into the PERC controller and retag array.
6. Be sure to note the array policy settings so that you can re-create them in the new array.

***NOTE*** This is a very critical part of the process.

7. Delete virtual disc in the controller set up.
8. Create new virtual disc using the full size of the new hard drives. DO NOT INITIALIZE ARRAY AS ALL DATA WILL BE LOST(it was very importan.. it will say to initialze the array after creating virtual disks).
9. Exit controller and saving array configuration. You should now be able to boot to the OS.


Thanks everyone for the help....