2 RAID 1s at the same time on the same server?

[kozwin]

Hi Guys, 

 

DISCLAIMER: TL;DR - if you want to have an overview on the issue, please feel free to read. If not, you can skip to the end for the questions. 

 

I am fairly new to the topic of RAID and I have been asked if I can help with the topic I am going to address below. Now, I am asking you guys if you can give a helping hand regarding this:

 

A Dell Poweredge r320 (4 bays) has at this very moment 2 hdds of 1 TB each, running in RAID 1. The issue is that those hdds are almost full - storage capacity runs out.

Those hdds contain 2 partitions: C for the OS (Windows Server 2012) and E for Data Storage. 

 

My idea was to add 2 more hdds of 2TBs each and to form another RAID 1 with those, thus now having, in theory at least, 2 RAID 1 configurations co-existing on the server. This approach was thought about because we do not want to lose data in the process of reconfiguration of the RAID. If this approach is possible, we can then move the data we have on partition E from the first disk onto the second disk (2TB RAID 1), format the partition and extend the C at 1TB.

 

I know my explanation may seem too overly complicated, but I wanted to be specific. Now, the questions are:

 

1. Is it possible to have 2 RAID 1s at the same time on this Dell Poweredge r320? 

And if the answer is yes,

2. Can I configure the second RAID 1 without interfering with the first one, thus avoiding losing data that we do not want to lose? 

 

Thank you very much in advance! 

[PorkishPig]

44 minutes ago, kozwin said:

2. Can I configure the second RAID 1 without interfering with the first one, thus avoiding losing data that we do not want to lose? 

This should be possible within the BIOS of your RAID controller. If you have a H310/H710P/H810 RAID controller, instructions for creating additional virtual disks is available on page 42 of your manual.

44 minutes ago, kozwin said:

My idea was to add 2 more hdds of 2TBs each and to form another RAID 1 with those, thus now having, in theory at least, 2 RAID 1 configurations co-existing on the server. This approach was thought about because we do not want to lose data in the process of reconfiguration of the RAID. If this approach is possible, we can then move the data we have on partition E from the first disk onto the second disk (2TB RAID 1), format the partition and extend the C at 1TB.

You're looking for RAID 5 or 10, not RAID 1. See https://www.prepressure.com/library/technology/raid to learn about the different available RAID levels. I would advise backing up your data and rebuild the array instead of adding an additional array.

[Jarsky]

7 hours ago, kozwin said:

1. Is it possible to have 2 RAID 1s at the same time on this Dell Poweredge r320? 

And if the answer is yes,

Yes, the older LSI raid cards typically support up to 16 array configurations at a time

7 hours ago, kozwin said:

2. Can I configure the second RAID 1 without interfering with the first one, thus avoiding losing data that we do not want to lose? 

Yes. You obviously can't use disks already assigned to the first raid, but as above you can configure many arrays to run simultaneously, of whatever raid level you want. With Windows server, you can just use megaraid storage manager to configure your arrays

[Nick7]

1) Yes

2) Yes

 

You create new logical drive which is RAID1 out of those two new drives. You don't need to touch existing drives.