Adding to a RAID 5 on a SANS DIGITAL TR8M

[progrocktv]

Hi All,
I'm looking to build a RAID 5, but am also looking to expand in the future (when budget allows). I currently have 4 1.5 tb discs, but instead of going with a 4 bay, I'm looking at the SANS DIGITAL TR8M 8 bay for future expansion. My question is if I build a RAID 5 using my 4 1.5 drives, would it be possible to add discs to the RAID 5 at a later date? (adding a new 1.5 drive every month or so, or even adding an additional 4 drives at once)

Thanks!

 

[chunkymonster]

To answer this question, you need to research the RAID software that comes with the SANS DIGITAL TR8M and determine if it has online capacity expansion...if it does, then yes you can increase the size of the RAID5 array by adding more disks, but if it does not have online capacity expansion, then no you can't...

Even if there is no online capacity expansion, you can always increase the size of the RAID5 array by adding disks and re-configuring the array, but doing that will cause you to lose all data on the array. To which, you can back up or make an image of the data to another drive and then recopy/reimage over to the array after it's been rebuilt with the added disks...

 

[saint19]

No, when you do the array with 5 or 3 or 2 disk you can't not add more disk after the array. For add more disk to the array, you have to format and re-make the array with the old and new disk....