Working with mirrored arrays

Among the advanced tasks possible with the HP SSA GUI, you can split a mirrored array and then recombine it. This process entails splitting a RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 mirror into two identical new arrays consisting of RAID 0 logical drives.

Support for these procedures requires the following:

The HP SSA GUI must be run in offline mode.

HP Smart Array G6 and G7 controller models must have a valid SAAP license ("About SAAP" on page 131).

Mirrored arrays being split can have RAID 1, RAID 1+0, RAID 1 (ADM), or RAID 10 (ADM) configurations. Arrays with other RAID configurations cannot be split.

Several reasons exist for splitting and recombining a mirrored array. For more information, see the "RAID 1(+0): breaking mirrors and rebuilding drives" how-to white paper on the HP website (http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00378986/c00378986.pdf).

Splitting a mirrored array

1.Run the HP SSA GUI in offline mode. See "Accessing HP SSA in the offline environment (on page 10)."

2.Open the Configure panel by doing one of the following:

o Choose a device and click Configure in the quick navigation menu.

o Select an available device from the Home screen, and then click Configure under the available options.

3.Select Arrays from the Devices menu.

4.From the Arrays menu, select the appropriate array.

5.Select Manage Data Drives from the Actions panel.

6.Under Available Array Action(s), select Mirror Array.

7.Select a physical drive.

8.Click OK.

The mirrored array details are displayed.

9.Click Finish.

10.When HP SSA finishes splitting the array, two logical drives appear in the Arrays menu: o When a RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 array splits, two RAID 0 logical drives are created.

o When an array that contains a RAID 1 (ADM) logical drive splits, a RAID 1 logical drive and a RAID 0 logical drive are created.

o When an array that contains a RAID 10 (ADM) logical drive splits, a RAID 1+0 logical drive and a RAID 0 logical drive are created.

11.Shut down the OS.

12.Power down the server.

13.With power off, remove the physical drives that constitute one of the new arrays.

If you do not remove the physical drives for one of the arrays, the OS will be unable to distinguish between the two arrays when the server is restarted because the arrays are identical.

14.Power up the server.

15.Restart the OS.

Operations 41