How to create RAID 1 mirroring with a hard disk that already has data or an operating system on it

Transcription

1 AnswesThatWok TM How to set up a RAID1 mio with a dive which aleady has Windows installed How to ceate RAID 1 mioing with a had disk that aleady has data o an opeating system on it Date Company PC / Seve details You name (Who is doing the job) When to use this document One of the most iitating assumptions made by manufactues of RAID contolles is the assumption that RAID 1 mioing will only eve be set up befoe the Windows opeating system is installed, o befoe a had disk is used as a second dive. Well, nothing is futhe fom eality as many end-uses and small businesses decide to implement RAID 1 mioing at some stage afte a PC o small seve has been set up, and when they do.. they usually won t be able to find anything in the documentation which explains how to do it with the esult that many uses believe they have to e-install eveything fom scatch if they want to convet to a RAID 1 mioing setup! This document ectifies the situation by explaining how to set up RAID 1 mioing with an Adaptec SATA contolle, whethe it be a SATA-II contolle o a Seial Attached SCSI contolle (SAS), in a situation whee the had disk to be mioed aleady has a Windows opeating system installed on it, ie. when you aleady have an existing Windows installation. If you ae eading this document and do not know what RAID 1 mioing is : the most cucial pat of a seve PC, o of any PC fo that matte, is the had disk. If you ae a home use, the likelihood is that eithe you aely backup you PC, if eve, o you backup some of the data fom time to time to a USB had disk. If you ae a small business you pobably have a backup tape dive fo automated ovenight backups. Well, the addition of a second had disk (the backup had disk) inside you PC and the setting up of RAID 1 mioing wheeby you main had disk is automatically mioed to the second had disk, povides geat added potection against an unexpected failue of you main had disk, with nea instant switch-ove to the backup had disk when disaste stikes. Page 1 of 10 Copyight AnswesThatWok.com, 16-Ap-2010.

2 AnswesThatWok TM How to set up a RAID1 mio with a dive which aleady has Windows installed Pepaation (avoiding disaste!) Setting up RAID 1 mioing using a had disk with existing data (o an existing opeating system) can have only two esults : it is successful and you e off and unning, o you entie had disk is wiped out! The second possibility is the one you need to focus on ight fom the stat, and by this we mean focus on avoiding it completely!! Plan the job : the initial eplication phase of you souce had disk to the taget had disk will take anything fom 5 to 10 hous depending on the sizes of the had disks involved. Theefoe, if this is a business fileseve, you will need to plan this as an afte-hous job o a weekend job. Next, befoe you even think of doing anything, take an image backup of you had disk. Thee ae many good poducts out thee that you can use to take images of a had disk afte thoough evaluation of many of those poducts, we ouselves pefe the low-cost yet compehensive poducts fom TeaByte Inc (TeaByteUnlimited.com), Image fo DOS, o Image fo Windows. We tend to use Image fo DOS which you can use to backup any type of had disk (Windows, NetWae, Linux), but if you ae moe comfotable with a Windows inteface, then go fo Image fo Windows. Eithe way, ou ecommendation is that you should buy Image fo Windows which fo $39 gives you Image fo Windows, Image fo DOS, Image fo Linux, and a few othe goodies. Tip : IT pofessionals and IT depatments check out TeaByte s Image Technical Licence and Image Deployment Licence inteesting offeings. Test the image backup you just made. This is as impotant as making the image itself. Do not go to the next stage until you know you will be able to use you backup image if something goes dastically wong. Getting Windows to ecognize the Adaptec contolle Now that you have a backup image that you can ely on if things go wong, shut down you PC/seve and physically install you Adaptec RAID contolle into the PC/seve (we used an Adaptec 1220SA fo the pupose of this document). Do not connect the boot had disk to the adapte. Leave it connected to the motheboad s onboad contolle fo the moment. Boot the PC/seve into Windows. Page 2 of 10 Copyight AnswesThatWok.com, 16-Ap-2010.

3 AnswesThatWok TM How to set up a RAID1 mio with a dive which aleady has Windows installed Go to and download the vey latest dives fo you Adaptec RAID contolle (the dives that come on the installation CD might not be the vey latest dives). Install the dives you just downloaded and make sue that Windows now shows the RAID adapte popely installed. Now that you Adaptec RAID contolle is fully installed into Windows we know that if you connect you boot had disk to the Adaptec RAID contolle, you PC/seve will successfully boot into Windows. So shut down you PC/seve. Now connect you main had dive (the one that this PC/seve boots fom) to Pot 0 of you Adaptec RAID contolle. Make sue it is definitely Pot 0 and not Pot 1, Pot 2, o any othe pot. Stat you PC/seve again and make sue it boots popely into Windows. If it does you ae now eady to stat the ceation of you RAID 1 mioing system. Note : typically, on seve opeating systems, you will get a message saying that Windows has detected a hadwae change and that it wants you to e-activate Windows within 3 days. You can do so at this stage o once you have completed the mioing of you had disk you choice. Going fo it Now that we know ou Adaptec contolle woks fine, we can wok on actually setting up RAID 1 mioing. Shut down you PC/seve. Now connect the had disk you will be using as mio had disk to Pot 1 of you Adaptec contolle. Tip : A good pactice to have is to make sue befoe this step that the dive you intend to use as mio had disk is actually empty, just in case you have picked up a dive which someone fogot to label appopiately and that dive is a dive you eally do not want to ovewite!! Page 3 of 10 Copyight AnswesThatWok.com, 16-Ap-2010.

4 AnswesThatWok TM How to set up a RAID1 mio with a dive which aleady has Windows installed Boot you seve and watch out fo Pess <Ctl><A> fo Adaptec RAID Configuation Utility. When the message appeas, pess Ctl+A to go into you Adaptec contolle BIOS (also called the Configuation Utility ). Keep pessing Ctl+A until you get a message confiming that Ctl+A was pessed. Once inside you Adaptec contolle s BIOS, choose Disk Utilities. Inside Disk Utilities check that both you had disks ae showing popely, and make sue they show up as SATA-II (SATA-2) just in case you had disks have jumpes which configue them as SATA-1 (SATA-2 shows up as 3.0Gb/s tansfe speed). Escape back to the Main Menu. This time choose Aay Configuation Utilities. Next, choose Configue Dives Pess the space ba on each of the dives to select both dives so that both dives show in SELECTED DRIVES in the top ight-hand cone of the sceen. Pess Ente. At this point you will get a waning saying : WARNING : One o moe selected dives has a valid patition and thee is a isk of losing the data if configued. Do you want to continue? (Yes/No): Ente Y fo Yes. The sceen will biefly show Configuing the dives and will then take you back to the Main Menu. Next, choose Manage Aays. You two dives should show as SIMPLE VOLUME in the List of Aays in the top ight cone of the sceen with you oiginal LIVE had disk showing on Pot 0. This step is puely to make sue we ae on tack, that eveything has been connected popely, and that all the steps up to this point have been followed coectly. Escape back to the Main Menu. Now choose Ceate Aay. Page 4 of 10 Copyight AnswesThatWok.com, 16-Ap-2010.

5 AnswesThatWok TM How to set up a RAID1 mio with a dive which aleady has Windows installed On the next window you two dives will show again. This is you last oppotunity to check that you have the coect SOURCE DRIVE on Pot 0. Do so. Fo example, if the two dives ae of diffeent size (the taget mio dive must be of equal size, o lage, than the souce dive), o of diffeent makes, o they ae diffeent model vesions, the infomation on the sceen will easily enable you to veify that you have the had disks connected popely. Now, pess the space ba on each of the dives in tun so that they show up in the top ight-hand cone in the SELECTED DRIVES section. Hit ENTER. On the next sceen, Aay Popeties, you ae pompted to choose what type of RAID you want to use. Choose RAID 1. Next, give a name to you RAID aay, e.g. : My company Sv 1 RAID1 You ae next pompted with Ceate RAID via. Choose BUILD and pess Ente. Pess Ente on DONE at the bottom of the window. The next window you get is Select Souce Dive. Choose the had disk showing on Pot 0 and pess Ente (now you undestand why we ve been focusing on connecting you oiginal souce had disk on Pot 0!!). You will now get the following waning message : Building the RAID 1 may take a few hous o moe to complete. Do you still want to continue? (Yes/No) : Pess Y to stat the building of you RAID 1 system. You will now see a sceen which displays the pogess of you RAID 1 system being built (in effect, you oiginal souce had disk being mioed onto the taget had disk). At cuent SATA-2 had disk speeds, Apil 2010, each 100GB of data takes, at best 20 minutes to complete, and, at wost, 2 hous to complete. So plan on this phase taking anything fom 2 to 12 hous. Page 5 of 10 Copyight AnswesThatWok.com, 16-Ap-2010.

6 AnswesThatWok TM How to set up a RAID1 mio with a dive which aleady has Windows installed At this stage you can do eithe of two things : You can wait till the mioing pocess completes, and once it has completed continue on with the next step below. O, once the mioing pocess has eached 1%, you can tun OFF you PC/seve, eboot it, log into Windows, and continue using the PC/Seve. The mioing pocess will continue in the backgound, something you can monito youself though the Adaptec Stoage Manage softwae descibed in the next section. At the end of the pocess you will get the following message : Building the aay is successfully completed. Pess any key to etun to the Main Menu. Next, veify that eveything is alight. Choose Manage Aays, then pess Ente on you RAID 1 system (aay), and then check that the Aay Status shows as OPTIMAL. If it does, you e in business. Exit the Adaptec Configuation Utility and eboot you PC/seve. Putting the finishing touches Now that you PC/seve is up and unning with the safety of RAID 1 mioing, you will need to install the monitoing softwae which will enable you to monito the good unning of you RAID system, o whethe you PC/Seve is successfully building/ebuilding the RAID 1 mioing system, etc... Locate the Adaptec Stoage Manage CD, o download the softwae fom At the time of witing of this document the latest vesion of Adaptec Stoage Manage is vesion (23-Aug-2007). When you install the softwae you will be pompted to ceate an Administato usename and passwod. Choose Diect Attached Stoage and change the default Admin usename to Administato and use the same passwod as the Administato passwod on you PC/seve (to avoid fogetting it). Next, document this usename and passwod. Page 6 of 10 Copyight AnswesThatWok.com, 16-Ap-2010.

7 AnswesThatWok TM How to set up a RAID1 mio with a dive which aleady has Windows installed Once you ae in Adaptec Stoage Manage immediately go to the VIEW menu and configue it as follows fo a moe use fiendly configuation : As soon as you check Diect Attached Stoage you new RAID 1 mio system will show. Double-click on it, login, and it will show the infomation to the ight in the above sceenshot. If it says Optimal fo both dives, then you e in business. Next, configue how you want the softwae to alet you if thee is a poblem with you RAID 1 system (ie. one of the disks is geneating eos). Click CONFIGURE on the toolba and configue the Geneal Settings as shown below : Page 7 of 10 Copyight AnswesThatWok.com, 16-Ap-2010.

8 AnswesThatWok TM How to set up a RAID1 mio with a dive which aleady has Windows installed Next, click on the Notifications tab and set up an alet so that the Adaptec softwae s notify you if thee is a poblem with you RAID 1 system. Fo this you will need to set up one o moe ecipients, e.g. youself as System Administato, you will need to set up a sending addess, e.g. RAID-1_System_Seve1@MyCompany.com, and you will need to know the name of the SMTP seve you can use to send the though. If you have an intenal mail seve such as Micosoft Exchange o Novell GoupWise, simply use the IP addess of you Exchange o GoupWise seve; if you instead use POP mail, then use you ISP s SMTP seve - if you do not know it ty this page on ou website, Do not foget to specify against each ecipient the type of infomation you want the Adaptec Stoage Manage softwae to send you : at AnswesThatWok we nomally set it to Eo, Waning, Infomational. Click on Save changes to save you new configuation. Replacing a faulty dive in you RAID-1 system One you have set up you RAID 1 aay, you will want to know how to eplace a faulty had disk when one does go faulty in the futue. If you do encounte this situation, follow these steps : Shut down you PC/seve. Disconnect the faulty had disk. You will typically have identified the had disk as faulty eithe though the Adaptec Stoage Manage softwae, oe, moe often, though expeience, such as, example, a seve suffeing epeated feezes o hangs when nothing in the make up of the seve has changed fo some time. If the had disk you ae eplacing is the maste had disk fom Pot 0, then switch the had disk that is staying, fom Pot 1 to Pot 0, so that, fo consistency of pocedue, you PC/seve always boots fom Pot 0. Replace the faulty had disk with a new had disk of a size equal o geate than the emaining had disk. This eplacement had disk should be going on Pot 1. Tip : A good pactice to have is to make sue befoe this step that the dive you intend to use as mio had disk is actually empty, just in case you have picked up a dive which someone fogot to label appopiately and that dive is a dive you eally do not want to ovewite!! Page 8 of 10 Copyight AnswesThatWok.com, 16-Ap-2010.

9 AnswesThatWok TM How to set up a RAID1 mio with a dive which aleady has Windows installed Boot you seve and watch out fo Pess <Ctl><A> fo Adaptec RAID Configuation Utility. When the message appeas, pess Ctl+A to go into you Adaptec contolle BIOS (also called the Configuation Utility ). Keep pessing Ctl+A until you get a message confiming that Ctl+A was pessed. Once inside you Adaptec contolle s BIOS, choose Disk Utilities. Inside Disk Utilities check that both you had disks ae showing popely, that the new had disk is of the coect size, and make sue both the had disks show up as SATA-II (SATA-2) just in case you had disks have jumpes which configue them as SATA-1 (SATA-2 shows up as 3.0Gb/s tansfe speed). Escape back to the Main Menu. This time choose Aay Configuation Utility. Next, choose Add / Delete Host Spae Pess the INS (Inset) key to select the new had disk you installed. This will move the new dive to Assigned Hotspae Dives in the top ight-hand cone. Pess Ente. At this point you will get a waning saying : Do you want to ceate a spae? (Yes/No) : Ente Y fo Yes. You ae now back at the Main Menu. Next, choose Manage Aays. In the List of Aays in the top ight cone of the sceen pess Ente on you cuent RAID 1 aay. You should now see the Aay Popeties sceen which tells you you have a Missing Membe and that you Aay Status is DEGRADED. Pess Esc. Pess Ctl+R to Rebuild you RAID 1 aay. The sceen will change and you will now get the Aay Building Pogess Sceen showing. On it you should see the Aay Status showing BUILDING and the BLOCK numbe inceasing. Page 9 of 10 Copyight AnswesThatWok.com, 16-Ap-2010.

10 AnswesThatWok TM How to set up a RAID1 mio with a dive which aleady has Windows installed Once the building pocess eaches 1% tun off you PC/seve with the ON/OFF button, estat it into Windows, log in to Windows, and then stat the Adaptec Stoage Manage softwae to monito the pogess of the ebuilding pocess (Remembe : Adaptec Stoage Manage will in any case you of the pogess of this ebuilding pocess!). Once the ebuilding is complete you system is back up and unning but this time with one of the had disks having just been eplaced. Some inteesting findings on Pefomance issues Adaptec have always been consideed as the kings of RAID, with LSI Logic, fomely BusLogic, not fa behind. Intel, because they ae Intel (!), have always been highly egaded fo anything fom motheboads, netwok cads, gaphics chipsets, to onboad had disk contolles. NVidia s onboad contolles have demonstably faste onboad SATA-II contolles than VIA and AMD. Quite sepaately the geneal wisdom is that RAID pefomed though good onboad RAID had disk contolles will always outpefom RAID done though PCI o PCI-E RAID contolles. Well, we too at AnswesThatWok subscibed to all the above, until we an tests with Adaptec s latest affodable SATA-II RAID contolles, and we wee in fo a majo shock : all Adaptec SATA-II RAID contolles, such as the low-cost 1220SA, o 1225SA, o the moe expensive 1420SA, 1430SA, 2420SA, and 2820SA, all thooughly outpefom all onboad Intel, NVidia, o Pomise SATA-II contolles, by a minimum of 50% to 150%. It was staggeing we wee so stunned by the fist batch of esults we had to un the tests again and, Yes, Adaptec is the undisputed king of SATA-II pefomance. As a geneal ule it outpefoms onboad NVidia contolles by about 50% and pulveises onboad Intel contolles by anything fom 70% to 100%. Wow! Enjoy.. ooooooooooooooooooooo Page 10 of 10 Copyight AnswesThatWok.com, 16-Ap-2010.