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SANtricity 11.5
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Change RAID level for a volume group

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You can change the RAID level for a volume group to accommodate the performance needs of the applications that are accessing the volume group. This operation changes a volume group's RAID level without impacting data I/O.

Before you begin

  • The volume group must be in Optimal status.

  • You must have enough capacity in the volume group to convert to the new RAID level.

  • You cannot change the RAID level of a pool. System Manager automatically configures pools as RAID 6.

About this task

You cannot cancel this operation after it begins. Your data remains available during this operation.

More about RAID levels

RAID Level Description

RAID 0 striping

Offers high performance, but does not provide any data redundancy. If a single drive fails in the volume group, all of the associated volumes fail, and all data is lost.

A striping RAID group combines two or more drives into one large, logical drive.

RAID 1 mirroring

Offers high performance and the best data availability, and is suitable for storing sensitive data on a corporate or personal level.

Protects your data by automatically mirroring the contents of one drive to the second drive in the mirrored pair. It provides protection in the event of a single drive failure.

RAID 10 striping/mirroring

Provides a combination of RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring), and is achieved when four or more drives are selected.

RAID 10 is suitable for high volume transaction applications, such as a database, that require high performance and fault tolerance.

RAID 5

Optimal for multi-user environments (such as database or file system storage) where typical I/O size is small and there is a high proportion of read activity.

RAID 6

Optimal for environments requiring redundancy protection beyond RAID 5, but not requiring high write performance.

RAID 3 can be assigned only to volume groups using the command line interface (CLI).

Steps

  1. Select Storage › Pools & Volume Groups.

  2. Select the volume group that you want to edit, and then click View/Edit Settings.

    The Volume Group Settingsdialog box appears.

  3. Select the RAID level from the drop-down list, and then click Save.

    A confirmation dialog box appears if capacity is reduced, volume redundancy is lost, or shelf/drawer loss protection is lost as a result of the RAID level change. Select Yes to continue; otherwise click No.

Results

When you change the RAID level for a volume group, System Manager changes the RAID levels of every volume that comprises the volume group. Performance might be slightly affected during the operation.