iDRAC 9 GUI - Reconfigure a Virtual disk Raid level

 

In the last post I talked about expanding a Virtual disk, today we’ll discuss the process involved in changing the raid level using the iDRAC GUI.

RAID level migration (RLM) refers to changing a virtual disk’s RAID level. Both RLM and Online capacity expansion (OCE) can be done simultaneously so that a virtual disk can simultaneously have its RAID level changed and its capacity increased. When an RLM or an OCE operation is complete, a reboot is not required when doing it from the iDRAC GUI.

 

NOTE: Spanned virtual disks such as RAID 50 and 60 cannot be reconfigured.

NOTE: Raid 10 can be reconfigured to add more disks, but the raid level cannot be changed.

NOTE: Reconfiguring virtual disks typically impacts disk performance until the reconfiguration operation is complete. 

We always recommend prior to doing a reconfiguration of a raid level that you have a backup of the data

Listed below is table of what raid levels can be converted / reconfigured to another raid level

 

In the image we have a raid 5 currently configured with a capacity of 1489.25 GB .

 

To view the member disks of the Raid 5, click on the action drop down box and choose “View Physical Disks”

 

We can see from the image that the raid 5 is made up of 3 x 744 GB disks. Raid 5 is calculated using the formula n-1. In our example we have 3 disks, but we take away the capacity of 1 for parity leaving us with a total capacity of two drives which adds up to 1489.25 GB.

 

 

 

If I want to reconfigure the raid 5, I have several options. I could expand the raid level by adding a disk and leaving it as a raid 5 or I could change the raid level to Raid 0 or 6.  In this example I’ll demonstrate how to change it to a RAID 6.

Since Raid 6 uses the capacity of two drives for parity as opposed to the capacity of one disk in a raid 5, you would need to add at least one additional drive. This will change the raid level, but it won’t increase the capacity. If I wanted to increase the capacity at the same time as reconfiguring the raid level, I would need to add 2 or more disks.

From the action drop down menu select Raid Level Migration.

 

On “New Raid Level” it will list the available level that the current Raid can be converted to. In our example we will choose Raid 6.

 

A warning will appear advising that we need a minimum of 4 disks.

 

From the same window click “Add Physical Disk”.

 

 

In the pop window select a free disk and click “Add Disks”

 

The main window will appear and show the newly added disk – click apply

 

The following menu will appear click “Apply now”.

In the job Queue the job will run.

Depending on the size of the raid level it could take several hours for it complete but one it does we see the new Raid Level – notice the capacity has not changed.

 

To view the member disks  click the action drop down menu and select “View Physical Disks”.

 

We can see that the raid 6 is now made up of 4 disks with the newly added disk 0:1:3 highlighted.

 

And that’s how you can reconfigure a Raid level using the iDRAC GUI.

Thanks for reading !