Cloning a RAID-5 Array?

[MulLa]

Hi all

Recently at a job interview I was told by the manager that they recently upgraded (increased) capacity of their RAID-5 array. Was told that the consultants have to replace the entire array with new drives and reinstall everything!

I was just wondering if there is software out there that can clone RAID-5? I was thinking can we just use something like Drive Image and clone individual drives and then just wack them back into the system? Or am I totally wrong?


Thanks in advance.

 

[bozo1]

Don't know about Ghost or Drive Image (you would have to have a DOS driver for the Raid controller for starters), but I've upgraded many arrays. Nothing wrong with just doing a backup to tape then restore.

 

[Panther505]

Originally posted by: MulLa
Hi all

Recently at a job interview I was told by the manager that they recently upgraded (increased) capacity of their RAID-5 array. Was told that the consultants have to replace the entire array with new drives and reinstall everything!

I was just wondering if there is software out there that can clone RAID-5? I was thinking can we just use something like Drive Image and clone individual drives and then just wack them back into the system? Or am I totally wrong?


Thanks in advance.

Can't do it a drive at a time because the data would be garbage to DI or ghost. If you could get a DOS driver for the arrray then you wouldn't have a problem with imaging it.

The array had to be rebuilt because if they just changed the drive size (ie 18 to 36 or 36 to 72) then the "old" array would only recognize the drives as whatever the original size was. With the OS intergrated on the RAID 5 then the only option is to change the drives rebuild the array on the controller and then reinstall the OS. From there you restore a system state backup and data back up (ie full backup ) and you will be up and running (if all goes well) in no time

 

[MulLa]

Thanks everyone for clearing that up for me, so much for 'trying' to be smart

I suppose that's same case for any RAID array out there then. Sounds like a pain to upgrade and a bit of risk involved too.

 

[MetroRider]

my suggestion would be to use Acronis TrueImage Server. The nice thing about this program is that it can clone your current partition and hard-drive setup while still booted inside of Windows. You can easily send the image file to another machine on your network, or to another device.

Once you have the image, go about replacing all the drives from the computer. With the new drives in, have the hardware based raid card re-create the array. Once done, you boot straight up with the Acronis TrueImage Server cd, and if it supports your RAID card, it should show you one big partition of unformatted space. If you get this far, then you can reimage the machine from the file you sent over to another machine from the network. Once the imaging is done, you are all set to go. Have the computer restart, and there you have it.

This is all considering that you are using the same hardware setup with only the size of the new hard-drives and units being and nothing else. The other main aspect is that TrueImage Server supports your RAID card. The program itself costs around $499.

One last thing: I have used this method for RAID 0 and 1 setups with my servers at work, and they all work like a charm. I have not tried this on any RAID 5 setup yet.

I hope this helps... good luck, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask

-metrorider

 

[MulLa]

Thanks MetroRider for letting me know there's such software avaliable. Will keep that in mind next time I encounter such situations, or when I wanted to make a smart comment during an interview

One questions however, I assume that TrueImage Server have some sort of networking function otherwise how can I find the image that I've sent to the other machine?

 

[MetroRider]

TrueImage has a Windows XP like interface. When it asks you where you'd like to save the image, it uses an Explorer like interface which gives you your local drives, and even the Network Neighborhood. From there, you can connect to just about any computer in a WORKGROUP or DOMAIN once you supply the proper username/password credentials.

for more info about this program, go to...........

Acronis TrueImage Server

enjoy

 

[MulLa]

Yes I've been to the website to check out the product spec. Was just a bit unsure as to the networking 'feature' when I boot from the TrueImage CD, thanks for clearing that up for me.

Thanks again MetroRider for the info :gift: