Need Help - IT guys - Upgrading a RAID 5 with WD disks (1 Viewer)

[IC FBGCav]

My business runs Windows 2003, currently have a NVIDIA RAID 5 array. We are having problems with one of the disks. The disk being used currently 500gb WD5000AAKX. Owner is looking to upgrade to WD red 4TB drives. Got my easy step by step instructions:

http://www.ehow.com/how_7612167_add-capacity-raid5.html

What could go wrong?

While I have many concerns, any advice will be appreciated. Yes, I have a recent back up. Also, the boot disk is a WD 500gb, WD5000AAJS, any problems with that? I know Windows 2003 is only being supported until 2015, so that is a concern too.

Also, the server is used mostly for storage. Most programs are on the desktops. We use MAC and PC's about 15 computers total.

TIA

 

[joffer]

is it Software RAID or is there an actual NVIDIA RAID controller in the server?

 

[IC FBGCav]

is it Software RAID or is there an actual NVIDIA RAID controller in the server?

It shows up under the hardware profile(device manager). Plus the disks are in array not loose.

 

[joffer]

is it Software RAID or is there an actual NVIDIA RAID controller in the server?

It shows up under the hardware profile. Plus the disks are in array not loose.

the instructions you linked to look like they are for SW RAID, meaning the drives are attached to the Motherboard chipset (Intel) and being managed by Microsoft. But if there is an actual HW adapter (NVIDIA) plugged into a PCI slot and the drives are attached to that, you may need to use NVIDIA's application to manage them.

If you go into Windows Disk Manager, can you see individual drives? or just the one RAID 5 volume?

 

[IC FBGCav]

is it Software RAID or is there an actual NVIDIA RAID controller in the server?

It shows up under the hardware profile. Plus the disks are in array not loose.

the instructions you linked to look like they are for SW RAID, meaning the drives are attached to the Motherboard chipset (Intel) and being managed by Microsoft. But if there is an actual HW adapter (NVIDIA) plugged into a PCI slot and the drives are attached to that, you may need to use NVIDIA's application to manage them.

If you go into Windows Disk Manager, can you see individual drives? or just the one RAID 5 volume?

Volume only. BTW, thanks for taking the time.

 

[joffer]

is it Software RAID or is there an actual NVIDIA RAID controller in the server?

It shows up under the hardware profile. Plus the disks are in array not loose.

the instructions you linked to look like they are for SW RAID, meaning the drives are attached to the Motherboard chipset (Intel) and being managed by Microsoft. But if there is an actual HW adapter (NVIDIA) plugged into a PCI slot and the drives are attached to that, you may need to use NVIDIA's application to manage them.

If you go into Windows Disk Manager, can you see individual drives? or just the one RAID 5 volume?

Volume only. BTW, thanks for taking the time.

yeah, I could be wrong but it sounds like HW RAID to me. Is there an NVIDIA management tool installed? Or maybe get the model number from the HW profile and look on NVIDIA's website.

 

[IC FBGCav]

is it Software RAID or is there an actual NVIDIA RAID controller in the server?

It shows up under the hardware profile. Plus the disks are in array not loose.

the instructions you linked to look like they are for SW RAID, meaning the drives are attached to the Motherboard chipset (Intel) and being managed by Microsoft. But if there is an actual HW adapter (NVIDIA) plugged into a PCI slot and the drives are attached to that, you may need to use NVIDIA's application to manage them.

If you go into Windows Disk Manager, can you see individual drives? or just the one RAID 5 volume?

Volume only. BTW, thanks for taking the time.

yeah, I could be wrong but it sounds like HW RAID to me. Is there an NVIDIA management tool installed? Or maybe get the model number from the HW profile and look on NVIDIA's website.

There is a tool installed and filezilla is also installed. There is already a drive having problems which is what prompted him to want to expand the drives. They are definately attached to NVIDIA by hardware, owner just walked by and I asked him.

 

[Green and Gold]

Make sure the hard drives are all the same speed, which means you need the new hard drives to match the speed of the old hard drives. Use whatever utility manages the HW Raid to rebuild it, usually accessible on boot. Only rebuild one hard drive at a time, and fully boot the server to make sure it's running properly after each hard drive is rebuilt.

If you don't have a maintenance contract on the server, figure out the exact model of your HW raid controller and buy a spare.

 

[IC FBGCav]

Make sure the hard drives are all the same speed, which means you need the new hard drives to match the speed of the old hard drives. Use whatever utility manages the HW Raid to rebuild it, usually accessible on boot. Only rebuild one hard drive at a time, and fully boot the server to make sure it's running properly after each hard drive is rebuilt.

If you don't have a maintenance contract on the server, figure out the exact model of your HW raid controller and buy a spare.

Thanks and good timing:

Successful cancellation item(s) from your Amazon.com order, they were 5400 rpms need 7200.

 

[LAUNCH]

Make sure the hard drives are all the same speed, which means you need the new hard drives to match the speed of the old hard drives. Use whatever utility manages the HW Raid to rebuild it, usually accessible on boot. Only rebuild one hard drive at a time, and fully boot the server to make sure it's running properly after each hard drive is rebuilt.

If you don't have a maintenance contract on the server, figure out the exact model of your HW raid controller and buy a spare.

Thanks and good timing:

Successful cancellation item(s) from your Amazon.com order, they were 5400 rpms need 7200.

I would just do a backup, build a new raid with all the new disks and restore from the backup.

 

[Green and Gold]

Make sure the hard drives are all the same speed, which means you need the new hard drives to match the speed of the old hard drives. Use whatever utility manages the HW Raid to rebuild it, usually accessible on boot. Only rebuild one hard drive at a time, and fully boot the server to make sure it's running properly after each hard drive is rebuilt.

If you don't have a maintenance contract on the server, figure out the exact model of your HW raid controller and buy a spare.

Thanks and good timing:

Successful cancellation item(s) from your Amazon.com order, they were 5400 rpms need 7200.

I would just do a backup, build a new raid with all the new disks and restore from the backup.

If it's just a file server, sure. If it is a combo domain controller/email server/SQL server or some such, which often is the case with small businesses, I'd probably save myself the headache and just rebuild the drives.

 

[LAUNCH]

Make sure the hard drives are all the same speed, which means you need the new hard drives to match the speed of the old hard drives. Use whatever utility manages the HW Raid to rebuild it, usually accessible on boot. Only rebuild one hard drive at a time, and fully boot the server to make sure it's running properly after each hard drive is rebuilt.

If you don't have a maintenance contract on the server, figure out the exact model of your HW raid controller and buy a spare.

Thanks and good timing:

Successful cancellation item(s) from your Amazon.com order, they were 5400 rpms need 7200.

I would just do a backup, build a new raid with all the new disks and restore from the backup.

If it's just a file server, sure. If it is a combo domain controller/email server/SQL server or some such, which often is the case with small businesses, I'd probably save myself the headache and just rebuild the drives.

If it is a domain controller none of those things should be on it. Get a Synology or some other sort of NAS for your files.

 

[Green and Gold]

Make sure the hard drives are all the same speed, which means you need the new hard drives to match the speed of the old hard drives. Use whatever utility manages the HW Raid to rebuild it, usually accessible on boot. Only rebuild one hard drive at a time, and fully boot the server to make sure it's running properly after each hard drive is rebuilt.

If you don't have a maintenance contract on the server, figure out the exact model of your HW raid controller and buy a spare.

Thanks and good timing:

Successful cancellation item(s) from your Amazon.com order, they were 5400 rpms need 7200.

I would just do a backup, build a new raid with all the new disks and restore from the backup.

If it's just a file server, sure. If it is a combo domain controller/email server/SQL server or some such, which often is the case with small businesses, I'd probably save myself the headache and just rebuild the drives.

If it is a domain controller none of those things should be on it. Get a Synology or some other sort of NAS for your files.

You'll find most small business don't adhere to best practices, which is what I assume is happening here if they're having a non-IT person rebuild a raid on a server. Or, at least, that's what I've seen. There is always one or two servers, all loaded to the gills with whatever the company uses.

However, I just re-read the OP and saw that it was used mostly for storage. In that case, I would take this opportunity to build a new raid and install a fresh Server 2008 R2 or 2012 so you're not up against the 2015 deadline for Server 2003. You're going to have downtime anyway, so you may as well use it.

 

[LAUNCH]

Really if it's just a file server I would go a RAID 6 NAS and not bother with the windows crap or RAID 5. If it's a domain controller I would just add the same drive and still get the NAS.

 

[IC FBGCav]

How are the WD Red drives?

Looking to upgrade the storage in my home. Anyone have a RAID NAS system?

Need at least 3TB, so with a backup then it's 6TB total. Need a media server. Saw the WD My Cloud EX2 on Amazon and seems to fit the bill, but the reviews are 66% 5-star, and 33% 1-star. Not the most encouraging. I've had lots of luck with WD in the past, but still get burned on 1 in 10 or so. Wondering how the WD-Reds rate.

We hired an IT company to make the change. They used the red drives I already purchased and said we could not have a much better drive for the price.