Re: Use mixed sizes drives in the same Raid string

[DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

No can do.  In order for RAID protection to be effective (that is 
protect ALL the data on all the drives) all the drives need to be the 
same size. As a result the system won't let you do what you're proposing.

You could go with two sets of four drives using 35's and 70's. This 
could be a slightly simpler migration because the load source drive 
could remain a 35GB unit and that's the one that's most difficult to 
swap out.  With only 8 slots available and the system gettin close to 
full, chances are you're going to need to back off a lot of stuff to be 
able do the disk migration with STRASPBAL though. This means at least 
two full system backups, then replace the drives and a full restore is 
the best plan. If you're going through all that then you may want to 
replace all 8 drives with 70s and be done with it.

  - DrFranken

On 4/14/2010 6:54 AM, Marco Facchinetti wrote:
> I'va a customer using 87% of the installed disks (246 Gb) so I have to find
> how to increase the total amount of disk space without an expansion unit (no
> available slots for new disks).
>
> The machine is  a 9405-520, the controller a 573D-001 with 8 disks (4326),
> Raid5 is active. Total available space is  246 Gb.
>
> My 1st question: may I mix in the same raid set drives with diffrent
> capacity (eg. 36 and 70 gb)?
>
> If posssible should I expect any perfomance problems?
>
> If not possible should I split the raid in two strings (eg. 4x4326 and
> 4x4327) or I must change all the drives?
>
> Any suggestion is much appreciated.
>
> TIA
>
> MarcoF
>