Migrating a Win 2k server from 1 HD to a RAID 5 array

[AirGibson]

I'm performing a variety of IT functions for a small but booming company. One of their forseeable issues is that their primary Win 2k server (which is responsible for AD, DHCP, DNS, backups, and a few other miscellaneous jobs) is running on a single quality SCSI hard drive. I'm pushing the importance of getting that switched over to a RAID 5 array ASAP as it would be quite chaotic for them to be down for a day or two with no internet should that drive fail and have to be rebuilt.

My question: Is there any imaging software that will let me pull an image from that lone HD and the push it to a new RAID 5 array? The google results I turn up never seem to definitively answer this question.

 

[mrbill14]

FWIW...

In my experiences (with both Ghost and True Image), I've taken an image of a RAID container (either RAID1 or RAID5) and went back and forth (made a RAID5 container into a RAID1 container and vicea-versa) with no problems. Don't see why it wouldn't work from a regular drive to RAID.

The key is how the imaging software "sees" the drives. Usually, it sees the RAID container as one, big hard drive and the RAID controller decides on how it writes the information to the drive (depending on how the container is set up in the RAID BIOS).

What I would do:

Take an image of the hard drive (store it somewhere - network or DVD). (Store the HD in a safe spot.)
Setup your container on the new/existing server
Use your image to ghost the new/existing server (assuming the hardware is identical)
Reboot and see what happens.

- OR - image/clone old drive to new drive (again, the RAID container should show up as a single, big hard drive).

You can always fall back to your orginal hard drive and setup.

 

[RyDogg1]

Why can't you add the drive(s) and promote the disk to dynamic, then mirror it. Shouldn't take more than a hour or two of downtime.

 

[redbeard1]

A friend uses a process almost identical to MrBill14. I've tried it succesfully also.

This process depends on ghost seeing the raid setup. We use ghost corporate. Symantec claims no official support for raids. Their explanation is, if it works for you, fine, if not, don't call us. We also clone the entire drive because ghost seems to have an issue only doing a partition.

True image has a reputation for working well with raids, though their site didn't used to promote it very much. Acronis changed their licensing, so that to use some of their products on servers you need an additional feature key. Partition Expert usually works to resize partitions within the raid, though it cannot change the array size.

I avoid windows dynamic drives at all costs. Most software tools do not see the data on a dynamic drive when you boot from a cd. This type of drive basically needs it's windows driver loaded so you can do something with it. Software raid from within the OS can be a royal pain to do a restore on. Hardware raid is the way to go.

First, install the new raid card if it isn't already in the system, getting the drivers installed, and the card seen properly before you proceed with the clone. We then use ghost to clone the entire original raid to an IDE drive temporarily, thus leaving your original OS intact. (I usually boot to the IDE drive to check that everything went ok.) Then create the new larger raid, and use the IDE drive to clone to the new array.

 

[Vegito]

uh yes and no..

if you're running on single scsi (no raid) and you dump the drive into a raid 5 controller (a secondary scsi raid) container, chances are after boot you'll get some sort of bsod...

Is your single drive running on a RAID controller or a SCSI controller ?

dynamic disk only works for software raid, as said, avoid it at all cost...

 

[doinmybestatlast]

saturday morning work

 

[redbeard1]

if you're running on single scsi (no raid) and you dump the drive into a raid 5 controller (a secondary scsi raid) container, chances are after boot you'll get some sort of bsod...

That is why, if the system did not already raid capabilities, that you install the raid card and it's drivers before you migrate the data. Windows will then accept something being installed on the raid.

I've used this procedure to do successful migrations with Adaptec, Megaraid, and Promise controllers.

But, as with any process, there is no guarantee it will work for you.

 

[AirGibson]

The system in question has no current RAID controller. It's simply a SCSI HD connected strait to a SCSI controller.

I have access to Ghost 9.0 (standard) and all I've read basically echos what is mentioned here. "Maybe Ghost will work with the RAID array, and maybe it won't." You all outlined the process I assumed would be the way to try (i.e. just ghost the HD, set up the new array, and try to push it). Thanks for the help.