# Need to replace / upgrade the hard drives in my works Server



## Mr Davo (Mar 16, 2009)

Hi Everyone,

I have a challenge with the Server at my work. Specifically it has run out of internal hard drive space; which currently consists of 6 x 500 Gig drives in a RAID5 configuration (giving me just under 2.5 Terabytes of space).

My Server Host OS is Windows 2012 Standard Edition; within the host I am running Hyper-V, and within Hyper-V I have a variety of Virtual Machines. My VMs include Windows Server 2003 (Domain Controller), Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. 

At my disposal I have a QNAP TS-469L NAS with about 10 Gigs of storage space. 

What I want to do is clone my Hosts entire hard drive space (all 2.5 Terabytes) to the NAS in a 'bit for bit' fashion.

Once I have done that I want to physically replace the hard drives, all six, with 3 or 4 Terabyte capacity drives, giving me a total capacity (before RAID) of between 18 and 24 Terabytes.

Finally I want to dump the file structure from the NAS back onto the new hard drives, boot the Server, and enjoy my new expanded hard disk capacity.

I have two challenges; 1). I cannot loose any data, 2). time is in the essence - best case scenario I probably only have about 9 - 10 hours in which to perform the task.

I am looking for any and all suggestions regarding the best way to go about the task that I have described above. What software can I use, e.g.: will CloneZilla (x64) do this, and am I better to transfer through USB 3 or 2 Gbps Ethernet?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Davo


----------



## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

Can you just create a second RAID array and clone the old array to the new one? That would be the fastest and easiest method. You can also make and image to the NAS, create the new array and restore it, that would take longer. Acronis True Image can be used for cloning/imaging under both scenarios but I think Clonezilla would work too.

USB 3 to another drive would work too, or to an internal SATA/SAS drive. Then you can restore from that single drive to the new array.


----------



## Mr Davo (Mar 16, 2009)

Hi Triple6,

Thank you for your input. I will look at Acronis True Image, and check to make sure that it will safely handle my requirements. At this stage I do not believe that I am in a position to build a second array, but I will need to investigate this too.

Kind Regards,

Davo


----------



## srhoades (May 15, 2003)

Making and restoring the image to a NAS will be slow. Just throw in another drive to the onbaord SATA controller and make and restore the image from that. FYI, you don't need to buy the whole server package of Acronis. The consumer version bootable media will clone a server OS without issue. Booting from a USB drive is faster than CD. Try it first to make sure it recognizes your RAID controller.


----------



## Mr Davo (Mar 16, 2009)

Hi srhoades,

Thank you for your input.

Kind Regards,

Davo


----------



## srhoades (May 15, 2003)

Correction: Boot from a USB thumbdrive, not a USB drive.


----------



## zx10guy (Mar 30, 2008)

You need to provide more information about what server hardware you're running. Some RAID controllers have the ability to add in additional hard drives into an existing volume; thereby allowing you to expand the amount of available space without having to destroy the volume and recreate it with the new drive added to the set.

Also you really need to examine if it is wise to use 3 or 4 TB drives in a RAID 5. If a drive were to ever fail, the rebuild time for a 3 TB drive is enormous. While that drive is rebuilding, your RAID 5 volume is in a extremely perilous condition as another drive failure will result in total data loss. This is assuming you've even made provisions to have a hot spare. If you didn't, that would be a very fool hardy decision. The guidance from many storage companies is that any drive over about 1 or 2 TBs used in a RAID volume should only exist as a RAID 6. The double parity structure of RAID 6 helps minimize the risk of losing the entire RAID volume during a failed drive rebuild as a RAID 6 can suffer a loss of 2 drives before the entire volume is gone.

I have an Equallogic iSCSI SAN array. One of the member arrays has 1.5 TB (or 2 TB...can't remember right now) drives in it. I originally had the array set up as a RAID 5 to maximize the available storage space. But did a migration to RAID 6 when I researched the rebuild times. I was OK taking some performance hit that comes with RAID 6 over RAID 5 as I want to reduce the risk of data loss. The other member array in my Equallogic SAN group has 300 GB drives in it. I went ahead and configured that array as RAID 50 as the rebuild times with 300 GB drives is tolerable.

BTW, you need to find out if that Qnap NAS supports SMBv3. If it doesn't, then your idea of migrating your data stores onto that NAS won't work for HyperV.


----------

