Raid and Mirroring issue

[tshark]

Hello Everyone,

I have been exploring the forum for the past 2 hours and dint find any issues or discussion related to my problem. So here is my question for the experts in this forum.

I am fairly new to server installation, raid configuration and etc (a newb to be clear).. I managed to install Windows Server 2008 R2 on our new IBM x3650 server on RAID 0. Lots of applications have been installed and the server is up and running now. My partner brings another 300gb SAS HDD similar to the one in RAID 0 and asks me to create a mirror in RAID 1. Here is where I am totally blank and I don't know what to do. I asked a few people around for a solution and few say that it cannot be done anymore but few say that it can be done.

- Can I create a mirror on RAID 1 now? and continue to perform synchronous mirroring from there on?

- If yes, What is the procedure? Any links or tutorials would really help.

- Are there any risks?

It would really helpful if some one can give me a solution to my problem.

 

[noidea_77]

What you want is called raid10. It's a raid0 (stripe) of two disks and those are mirrored to two other disks (raid1). So you need 4 disks to do it. To be honest: you started the wrong way. Nobody uses a raid0 as system disk for a server. It's always raid1. If raid1 is to slow, use another pair of disks in raid1 to spread the i/o's to more volumes. Quick solution: get a fourth disk an create a raid10. You can do that without losing the data.

 

[FireWire2]

I would take nodiea_77 suggestion, but with a full back-up of teh existing RAID0.

Just in case - never done this b4...

 

[dingo07]

exactly... ^ ... start over and do it the correct way as mentioned

*Had Woody gone straight to the police, none of this would have happened!

 

[popatim]

somethings off here... You said "simular to the ONE in raid 0" when talking about the 300gb sas drive.

Please describe your setup, use make and model numbers if you can.

And for the record you dont need 4 drives to do raid 10. Three drives is the minimum but the two in raid 0 must be small enough in total size that it will 'fit' onto the remaining drive. ie: dual 128gb drives in raid 0 (256gb total) can be raid1'd with a 300gb drive but not with anything smaller than 256 gb.

 

[tshark]

Thank you guys. Starting over is not an option for us since the software installed are all through remote support from China. Our business will start in 2 weeks time and the testing and auditing phase is now going on.

Here is my setup.

It is an IBM x3650 rack type server.
IBM 300gb SAS HDD
Windows 2008 R2 is installed in that hdd in raid 0.

I have another 300gb sas hdd in hand now and have to plug it in and perform exact mirroring on it from the primary hdd.

My doubt is that.. Can windows create an exact copy of the content in the primary hdd to this secondary hdd and perform mirroring from there on?

I hope you understand what I mean. Please ask if you need to know any other information. I desperately need to get this problem solved.

 

[GhislainG]

Thank you guys. Starting over is not an option for us since the software installed are all through remote support from China. Our business will start in 2 weeks time and the testing and auditing phase is now going on.

Here is my setup.

It is an IBM x3650 rack type server.
IBM 300gb SAS HDD
Windows 2008 R2 is installed in that hdd in raid 0.

I have another 300gb sas hdd in hand now and have to plug it in and perform exact mirroring on it from the primary hdd.

My doubt is that.. Can windows create an exact copy of the content in the primary hdd to this secondary hdd and perform mirroring from there on?

I hope you understand what I mean. Please ask if you need to know any other information. I desperately need to get this problem solved.

It can't be in RAID 0 if you have a single SAS drive. What RAID controller is included with your server?