Disabling an existing RAID 5 on DELL PE 2850 properly?

sifanulla

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Jun 26, 2009
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Hello,

Please assist with the proper procedure to disable an existing RAID 5 array without messing anything up on the OS side etc.

Brief history - I recently migrated the data which sits on the RAID 5 array to a SAN storage iSCSI volume and now I would like to recover the 3 disks which are being used in the RAID 5 array. I do not care what happens to the data on the disks being used in the RAID 5. My paramount concern is to ensure proper removal of the RAID 5 array without screwing up anything on the C:\ drive or RAID 1 configuration as this is being performed on a production server.

Can anyone please walk me through the steps involved in going into the DELL array configuration utility (CTRL + M at boot) on a Power Edge 2850 and PROPERLY eradicating the existing RAID 5 array? I do not want to harm anything on the other existing RAID 1 which is there.

Thanks in advance!
 

wuzy

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Jun 1, 2009
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By default configuration PowerEdge 2850 comes with PERC 4/Di controller.
You need to find out what's the SCSI ID of the three drives currently used in the RAID5 array first (and which channel they're attached on if multiple channels were used). Once you've identified them go into the controller's BIOS (CTRL + M as you've stated) and follow the instructions here to delete/reconfigure the array.

Shouldn't your SA be capable of doing this with blink of an eye?