Areca 1220 SATA Raid - Drive Upgrade

[climbingkid]

Any Areca experts out there?

I currently have 4x 250GB drives in a RAID 5 configuration - been sweet for over two years. Need more space though so the plan is to swap them out for 500GB drives.

If I replace each drive in turn and allow the raid to rebuild, will it make use of the additional space or simply use the first 250GB of the 500GB drive?

Of course I could simply bring up another array and copy all the data over - but thats 9 drives connected at once, alot of additional power cables and no way of securing that many drives - even if its temporary.


CC

[aidanjt]

You don't need to secure the disks for temporary transfer. Just leaving a few hanging while copying data to the new array will do, then screw everything in place when you're done.

[kungpo]

It depends on how the RAID is being done. Some RAID controllers will allow you to expand an array, and I beleive it;s fairly straightforward with Windows software RAID.

How is your Array set up?

[climbingkid]

You don't need to secure the disks for temporary transfer. Just leaving a few hanging while copying data to the new array will do, then screw everything in place when you're done.

Well I think this is the safest option in terms knowing it will work - but this is important data would rather not have drives hanging out unless I have no other option.

CC

[climbingkid]

It depends on how the RAID is being done. Some RAID controllers will allow you to expand an array, and I beleive it;s fairly straightforward with Windows software RAID.

How is your Array set up?

Areca hardware raid - no software raid involved - windows server sees a single drive. Areca manages the lot.

CC

[kungpo]

I'm a dumbass for not reading the post properly. I don't know about Areca controllers, but a lot of controllers (in my experience) allow a larger drive to replace a smaller drive. Add a number of drives, and you end up with a lot of unused space on each disk. then you can create a new array from the unused space. Hope this makes sense. I think the way to find out would be to replace one of the disks with a 500 and see what it gives you.

As an example, I once replaced a 9gb with an 18GB in a 3 disk R5. The 9gb extra on the 18gb showed up as unused space, but availalbe (as opposed to not being visible).

Make sense?

[climbingkid]

kungpo - that makes sense yes. Yes - I reckon I could replace all teh drives one by one, allowing for a rebuid and i'm sure that I can then ask teh Areca to do a raid expansion which should then make use of teh extra space on all the drives.

Thing is, despite reading all the documentation I cannot confirm this - cannot takes risks here though, so unless I can find hard evidence I will create a second raid and copy data across.

CC

[peterb]

No doubt you will back it all up first, so if it does go wrong, it won't be a disaster. (Or back it up, change the drives and then restore - expanding the array would make down time a bit shorter though)

[aidanjt]

kungpo - that makes sense yes. Yes - I reckon I could replace all teh drives one by one, allowing for a rebuid and i'm sure that I can then ask teh Areca to do a raid expansion which should then make use of teh extra space on all the drives.

Thing is, despite reading all the documentation I cannot confirm this - cannot takes risks here though, so unless I can find hard evidence I will create a second raid and copy data across.

CC

Yeah, I'm not sure that would work either. The safer bet is creating a second set and copy everything across. Array expansion usually only works be adding like disks, even if it did work it would be a very long process of switching disks one by one and reassembling palarity bits across the array. I wouldn't worry about loose disks too much, as long as they don't get yanked on while they're copying it'll be fine.

[kungpo]

I think a lot depends on the controller. I have successfully done this with SmartArray controllers, and it is worth noting, that often a failed disk is replaced by a larger one.

As long as you have a backup, "failing" a 250GB and replacing it with a 500GB should be pretty low risk. The worst things that can happen is 1) A second disk fails whilst the rebuild takes place or 2) The additional space on the 500GB is not recognised.

[climbingkid]

Just as an update I migrated everything during the weekend. Everything went pretty much to plan - creating a second RAID from the new drives and copying data across.

Moving everything into the new P182 case is another story - with the P182 not living up to the rave reviews - nice case, great cooling - but shoe-horning 4 drives and all the cables in the bottom of the case was dreadful.

I'll post my experiences in a seperate thread if I get chance.

CC

[climbingkid]

Anyone know if I can attach pictures here? Happy to post my completed work if anyone is interested

CC

[aidanjt]

Upload to some image hosting site, and use tags to place the images in your posts. There might be a post limit you need to reach before you can use em though, not sure.

[clown]

Moving everything into the new P182 case is another story - with the P182 not living up to the rave reviews - nice case, great cooling - but shoe-horning 4 drives and all the cables in the bottom of the case was dreadful.

I'll post my experiences in a seperate thread if I get chance.

CC

Just building my new PC into a P182. I'd appreciate any pointers you have. I wont have the challenge of putting in 4 drives though.

[climbingkid]

Clown

Well I will find somewhere to place a proper mini-review of my own to balance out the rave reviews I read over the summer. From my point of view, if you plan to fully populate one of these cases, ie. add 4 drives into the bottom compartment then its quite a squeeze - in fact with SATA connectors on hard disks so very delicate - its very risky!

Main issues witrh the P182 case that I found were:
1. The expansion card mounting panel at the back of the case was poorly aligned; meaning fixing the Areca RAID card in an expansion slot left a gap between teh Areca backplane and the expansion plate and no way of safely screwing it in place. Tried all the usual tricks and modified the Areca backplane in the end by slightly bending the plate (while detached from teh card!)

2. If you use the hard drive bays in the upper section for mounting the fan, and use this to pull in additional air, then you cannot mount an OS hard disk anywhere. In my situation I have 4x drives as a raid and one boot HDD for the OS. I had thought I could use the floppy bay for the boot OS hard disk - but no way is this possible. Even if you did manage it the blanking plate will not co-exist with the drive rails. Mounted it in a 5.25 bay in the end.

3. The drives in the bottom secion of the case (I have 4x fitted here) have to be oriented a certain way up. As I mentioned its pretty tight, getting 4x SATA cables and power connectors in front of the fan. If I could have turned all the drives the other way up, then the cables would have run along the bottom of the case rather than in the air. A simple set of additional drill holes in the drive cage would have allowed this.

Clearly I had very specific needs, and if you do not fully populate the case, you probably wont experience any problems - but certainly not what I expected.

The final result is working very well, with everything running quiet, running cool and looking very good. I especially like the way power cables are all routed on the back of the motherboard tray, keeping the upper section clear of obstructions, all these things improve airflow.

CC