n5200 pro - raid expansion question

[jrbless]

I am considering purchasing a n5200 pro and have a question.

Initially, I plan to have 2 drives @ 1TB each in a raid 1. When it is almost full, my plan is to add 3 additional drives @ 1TB each and build them into a raid 5. When the raid 5 is built, I would copy the information from the raid 1 to the raid 5. After the copy is complete, I would like to expand the raid 5 by adding the disks from the raid 1 to it (creating a large 5 disk, 4TB usable space raid 5 array). Is it possible to do this without data loss?

Any assistance will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
James

[Funkstar]

Yup, you can do that.

Or you can add the three disks and tell the Thecus to migrate for a RAID-1 to a RAID-5 array using all the disk. Your data will remain online and accessable while the RAID software alters your setup to use all the disks.

It will take a whilefor it to churn through all that data and build the array, but it should be a one step process so just leave it over night.

[jrbless]

Thanks!

[jrbless]

Sorry to be replying to myself, but I just thought of something.

If I start with a 2 disk raid 1 configuration, and add another disk, can I just have it migrate the raid 1 into a raid 5 using the extra disk without data loss? After the raid 5 is built, I could add a disk as needed to expand the space (up to 5 disks). Is my understanding correct or am I way off base?

Thanks!
James

[Funkstar]

Yup, you got it

[joe_adk]

Follow-up: This feature is not available on the 4100 series, correct? Raid Migration or Expansion.

[Funkstar]

It doesn't appear to no.

[leebaldock]

Whatever you do make sure you have a backup first. :-) I had a partial backup of my RAID5 array prior to going from 3 disks to 4 disks. It failed and now can't access the data. I "assumed" that the upgrade would just work seeing as this is all a RAID array like an N5200 has to do (dedicated NAS - moving from 3 disks RAID5 to 4 disk RAID5 should be perfect).

Anyway - make sure you have a backup.