Set up Disk Mirror in W2K Server

[Guest]

OurW2K server has 4 disks. They are all basic disk running RAID 0. I
intended to set up a disk mirror for fault tolerance [two of them are blank
and unuse]. However, there is no option to add mirror in Disk Management.

My question is do I need to upgrade to dynamic disk in order to create
mirror, or I have to use Array software to do it. If it is the case, then
will it destroy the existing data?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dan DeStefano]

Yes, you cannot implement any fault-tolerant disk configurations with basic
disks. However, if I were you I would invest in a hardware RAID solution
instead of a software one. Hardware RAID is much faster and is not dependant
on the health of the OS to function. I would never use software RAID on a
production server.

Dan DeStefano

 

[Bjorn Landemoo]

Vincent

Disk management knows nothing about your hardware RAID controller, you must
use your array software to reconfigure your current RAID 0 to RAID 1, or
even better RAID 10. Most high end controllers can change the RAID type on
the fly, as long as you have disks enough.

Leave your disks as basic, the added complexity of dynamic disks usually
does not add any needed functionality on a hardware RAID controller. This
MS Knowledge Base article has more information:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329707

Best regards

Bjorn

 

[Guest]

Thanks a lot all of you!

This one is a Dell server and very good. Whoever in the past didn't
configure the RAID and left 2 blank disk unused. Now I take over this
position and look to improve some of ours!

Best,

Vincent

Vincent

Disk management knows nothing about your hardware RAID controller, you must
use your array software to reconfigure your current RAID 0 to RAID 1, or
even better RAID 10. Most high end controllers can change the RAID type on
the fly, as long as you have disks enough.

Leave your disks as basic, the added complexity of dynamic disks usually
does not add any needed functionality on a hardware RAID controller. This
MS Knowledge Base article has more information:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329707

Best regards

Bjorn
--
Bjorn Landemoo - (e-mail address removed) - http://landemoo.com/
Microsoft MVP (Windows Server - File System)

OurW2K server has 4 disks. They are all basic disk running RAID 0. I
intended to set up a disk mirror for fault tolerance [two of them are blank
and unuse]. However, there is no option to add mirror in Disk Management.

My question is do I need to upgrade to dynamic disk in order to create
mirror, or I have to use Array software to do it. If it is the case, then
will it destroy the existing data?

Thanks in advance.