[CentOS] upgrading storage on hardware RAID 10 possible?

[Finnur Örn Guðmundsson]

  On 13.8.2010 09:45, John Doe wrote:
> From: Rudi Ahlers<Rudi at SoftDux.com>
>
>> Can anyone please tell me, from experience, if it's possible  to
>> upgrade the hard drives in a RAID 10 system from 250GB HDD's to 500GB
>> /  750GB HDD's, while the server is running? The server runs CentOS  5.5
>> x64.
>> Our hardware vendors simply always say no, so we never  actually tried
>> doing this.
>> So, I'm wondering,  is it possible (and safe) to upgrade the existing
>> drives to larger drives in  a running server?
> When you said "we never  actually tried"... tried what exactly?
> It depends... on your RAID ctrl of course...
> By example, with HP SmartArrays, you should be able to unplug a disk, plug a
> bigger one and let it rebuild.
> Rinse and repeat for all the disks.
> Then, you can expand the array...
> Although I did not try it so far.
>
> JD
>
>
>
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I've done this multiple times on IBM ServeRaid controllers as well as HP 
SmartArray controllers.

First, make sure your firmware is up-to-date (just to be on the safe 
side:). Unplug the first disk, replace it with whatever disk you want to 
add instead. Let the raid controller finish rebuilding the array and 
repeat the process.

After you have finished replacing all of the disks you can run the Raid 
Manager and resize the array.

But beware, some low end controllers do not support resizing of the raid 
array so make sure you check your vendors documentation :).

Bgrds,
Finnur