migrate from raid 5+1 (spare) to raid 50 without losing data on hp p420i smart array

Question

i have a raid 5+1(spare) with 8 disk of 1TB each one. my controller is hp p420i. i want add to my server another new array 5+1(spare) with other new 8 disk to build one array in raid 50 whithout lose data.

Answer 1

Firstly yes you can do this on a P420i, presumably this is in a DL380 G7/Gen8? anyway you can do this via 'RAID Level Migration' on that card, you don't mention which OS you want to do this on but it's possible either 'in-OS' via the ACU utility on Windows or the Linux CLI command (whose name changed a while back and isn't HPACUCLI but I've forgotten sorry!). Another option is to shutdown the server and either press F5 (if I recall) on a Gen8 or boot a G7 onto the ACU image and do it from there - it's up to you, it might be slightly quicker doing it this way but you need downtime.

One thing that I did want to point out however is that vanilla-R5 has had it's day, pro's never use it due some dull math related issues with it and large disks that mean you can be pretty certain that every time you replace a dead disk you're introducing unrecoverable read errors into your array. R50 will very much help with this, presumably you want to do this for increased performance? In which case have you considered converting this 7-disk-R5+1-spare to either a 14-disk-R10+2-spares or even a 16-disk-R10? both should be faster and just as safe - just wanted you to consider the options.