Adding drives to RAID

[Mnky313]

So, I have another server (this one's for a friend). It's some HP thing with a HP Smart Array P410 raid card so no IT mode.
There are currently 9 drives but he wants the ability to add more drives later on, is there a raid configuration that allows the adding of drives later on to increase capacity?
(I was just going to use FreeNAS/unRAID but I forgot about raid cards being dumb and not allowing direct access to drives...)
I don't know RAID or nested raid levels but would it be possible to make a raid 50 with 9 disks and add 3 more later on?
Edit: also not completely against buying a raid card that can be put in IT mode and is compatible with the chassis (HP StorageWorks P4500 G2)
Edit Edit: also not opposed to flashing the card to HBA mode, didn't think you could but hpsahba might work.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Im pretty sure if you setup a raid on that raid card, you can just add another disk, and it will expand the logical volume and give you more space. 

 

Im pretty sure that system is a rebranded hp dl 180 g6. I have one of those, and basically any lsi card works fine in it, like the dell h200/h310, the ibm versions, the lsi 9200-8i, 9208-8i(i think thats the number).

[Mnky313]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Im pretty sure if you setup a raid on that raid card, you can just add another disk, and it will expand the logical volume and give you more space. 

 

Im pretty sure that system is a rebranded hp dl 180 g6. I have one of those, and basically any lsi card works fine in it, like the dell h200/h310, the ibm versions, the lsi 9200-8i, 9208-8i(i think thats the number).

interesting, ill probably test just using raid before trying to put the card into HBA mode, didn't know you could just add disks to RAID without redoing the whole thing, does it have to be a certain amount or can I add 1 at a time?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Mnky313 said:

interesting, ill probably test just using raid before trying to put the card into HBA mode, didn't know you could just add disks to RAID without redoing the whole thing, does it have to be a certain amount or can I add 1 at a time?

Depends on the card and the raid level, but with raid 5 and 6 you can just add a drive at a time and get more usable space. 

 

Freenas might not be the best os cause it uses ZFS  and using hardware raid will remove some of the features ZFS  will give you, but it will still work fine.

[Mnky313]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Depends on the card and the raid level, but with raid 5 and 6 you can just add a drive at a time and get more usable space. 

 

Freenas might not be the best os cause it uses ZFS  and using hardware raid will remove some of the features ZFS  will give you, but it will still work fine.

the original plan was not to use hardware raid and just use freenas to combine the drives somehow (I've never used it, I was going to look into it until I released the raid card thing). As for raid 5/6 being able to add a drive at a time, i'll probably end up doing that

[Jarsky]

Keep in mind the array needs to redistribute....with that many disks if theyre about 3-4TB, you're probably looking at a week for the rebuild. 

Depending on your rebuild rate you'll lose about 50% performance. Also if its a RAID5, keep in mind you put your array at risk rebuild so many disks, and RAID5 isnt really recommended for more than 5-6 disks because of the increased risk of failure with so many spinning drives. The P410i like with LSI cards supports RAID level migration so if you have an existing array you can move it to RAID6 if you want....again that many disks if theyre like 3-4TB then you're looking at about a week to rebuild. 

[Mnky313]

9 hours ago, Jarsky said:

Keep in mind the array needs to redistribute....with that many disks if theyre about 3-4TB, you're probably looking at a week for the rebuild. 

Depending on your rebuild rate you'll lose about 50% performance. Also if its a RAID5, keep in mind you put your array at risk rebuild so many disks, and RAID5 isnt really recommended for more than 5-6 disks because of the increased risk of failure with so many spinning drives. The P410i like with LSI cards supports RAID level migration so if you have an existing array you can move it to RAID6 if you want....again that many disks if theyre like 3-4TB then you're looking at about a week to rebuild. 

I don't think you can add drives to the array in HP's thing (once there is already and array), I'll probably look into a different HBA card that can directly pass through the drives.

[Jarsky]

37 minutes ago, Mnky313 said:

I don't think you can add drives to the array in HP's thing (once there is already and array), I'll probably look into a different HBA card that can directly pass through the drives.

You can, in the HP Array Configuration Utility there is an option called "Expand Array". You then select the disks you want to add. Once the transform has finished, then extend the logical volume. 

[Mnky313]

1 minute ago, Jarsky said:

You can, in the HP Array Configuration Utility there is an option called "Expand Array". You then select the disks you want to add. Once the transform has finished, then extend the logical volume. 

Ok, I can check again. I just found the PDF on the p410 at it does mention it so I assume it's there just hidden in some sub menu.