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Best way to downgrade SCSI raid5 hdds

By abubin ·
My server is currently running win2k server with SCSI raid5. There are 6 HDDs. I need to take out 3 of the HDD. So I will be left with 3 HDD running raid5. Anyone know of the best way to do this without distrupting the data and os in the hdd?

The amount of data is able to fit into 3 HDD SCSI RAID5 system.

Thanks in advance.

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by bchesmer In reply to Best way to downgrade SCS ...

Much is depenent on your RAID controller.

Are the drives hot swap?

Do you have a complete backup of the server?

Are you going to replace this 3 drives with larger drives?

If you can answer a few of these questions, I think the people here could do a better job helping you with this.

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by abubin In reply to

Yes I do have hot swap but I don't wanna rely on it as I haven't actually tried taking a drive out while usage.

No recent backup but I can do it.

Those 3 drives will not be replaced. It will be taken out only.

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by djent In reply to Best way to downgrade SCS ...

I would do a complete backup, remove the drives and a DR restore.

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by wlbowers In reply to Best way to downgrade SCS ...

This is assuming you can take the system down.

Raid 5 does a data and parity stripe across avaible drives. You do realize that you loose one disk capacity with Raid 5. So if you are running 18gig drives you will have 36gig of storage avaible when you reduce to 3 drives. The other 18gig is the parity information.

Do a double backup of your system. New tape is recommended. I believe in Murphy's Law.

Take the system down. Remove the 3 drives, Reconfigure the raid, and restore the backup.

Good Luck Lee

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