convert from SATA to SAS

Tarek

hello
i have a server with SATA HDD in it in raid 5 mode , is there anyway to change it to SAS without losing data ?
thank you

MrClass

Hey Tarek. I strongly recommend you do it the old fashion way. Just backup the data (bare metal backup) on another storage unit, install your new SAS drives, set them up in RAID 5, then restore. This is the most stable way; might need more time, but when we talk about servers, stability is king.

Tarek

but wouldnt i have to install windows again ? i don't have my server license

AvoK95

Can't you clone the HDD ?

MrClass

Well RAID 5 and cloning aren't best friends. I think you might find some tools that allow RAID 5 cloning but I am not sure how stable it will be. The last thing you need on a server is I/O problems.

Yes you will need to reinstall Windows again. Why don't you have the server license? Check in your company who has it or contact the IT company that sold you that license. Though if you have the CDs, you can activate Windows by phone.

Also I know there are tools found on the web that allow you to view the used serial key of the licensed Windows you are running. You can simply open the app, and the app searches the registry for the serial number, then you can note it down. I used such a tool before; forgot it's name though (will look for the app on my computer later and try to send it to you).

Which Windows server OS are you running?

Tarek

i have windows server 2003 32 bit with terminal server in it .. the thing is i can't have a down time on my servers and the previous IT manager was extremely incompetent ( you can know by the use of the OS and normal 7k sata hdd )

Tarek

so im setting a new server and i am trying to benchmark my Sata , they are seagate Cheetah T10 300 GB SAS , any clus anyone ?

d3ad

Tarek wrotei have windows server 2003 32 bit with terminal server in it .. the thing is i can't have a down time on my servers and the previous IT manager was extremely incompetent ( you can know by the use of the OS and normal 7k sata hdd )

I am sorry but Using sata with 7200rpm is not in any means show incompetency, it all depends on what the user usage and load is, and most importantly the budget he had.

In any case, what you want to achieve without downtime does not seems to be feasible,. It would help if you can put in more details as to what your server load is like, how much data you have on your array etc.

the only way i can see it happening is by using something similar to Acronis Backup with universal store, I personally have 60/40 success/failure rate of using it. What you can try to do is make a clone of your server, restore on a new server and check if its able to host the services.

All in all I do not believe you can do it w/o having downtime.

d3ad

Tarek wroteso im setting a new server and i am trying to benchmark my Sata , they are seagate Cheetah T10 300 GB SAS , any clus anyone ?

I find passmark to be a good all around benchmark tool.

Tarek

d3ad wrote
Tarek wrotei have windows server 2003 32 bit with terminal server in it .. the thing is i can't have a down time on my servers and the previous IT manager was extremely incompetent ( you can know by the use of the OS and normal 7k sata hdd )
I am sorry but Using sata with 7200rpm is not in any means show incompetency, it all depends on what the user usage and load is, and most importantly the budget he had.

In any case, what you want to achieve without downtime does not seems to be feasible,. It would help if you can put in more details as to what your server load is like, how much data you have on your array etc.

the only way i can see it happening is by using something similar to Acronis Backup with universal store, I personally have 60/40 success/failure rate of using it. What you can try to do is make a clone of your server, restore on a new server and check if its able to host the services.

All in all I do not believe you can do it w/o having downtime.

the budget was enough for a decent server and the server is a mini-data-center so the hdds were supposed to work 24/7 with minimum fault rate , but the issue now is that i've prepared a small l test server with 1Gbit/s and SAS 300 GB 10k hard disk but the transfer rate maximum speed is about 30 Megabyte/sec

i want something to test the read/write speed on my hdds on a window server 2003

d3ad

you can use Passmark it will do the trick for you, are you writing the data with the same server or from an outside source.

Tarek

no it's locally , but even when i tested via network its aprox 20 MB/s

d3ad

well to calculate from network is another ball game, you will have to see the cable used, distance, switching hardware, Ethernet card used so i wont go there,

but if you are running from the same machine to same machine write, and the drive you mentioned it shouldn't so low, how are you measuring the HDD to HDD transfer rate, Have you tried Passmark HDD benchmark, or HD Tune?

Tarek

no not yet i can't find any free software , also my network is full 1Gbit/s , cat6 , fully 1gig NICS , STP with shielding and proper earthing ,,,it's a good network

d3ad

both are available as trial and will give you a clear understanding,

I didnt mean to say your network isnt good, what i meant was its sometimes really complicated to calculate the network speeds.

MrClass

How many hosts are there on the network? What switch brand do you use (and model)?

Tarek

all my network nodes are cisco , i have around 40 hosts

MrClass

you can't say you have a good network until you display the method of network configuration. In what formation are the switches connected? do you have vlans configured?

Tarek

hehehe MrClass , networking is my job , only spanning tree enabled on switched , only one 48 ports 1gig switch connected

MrClass

Tarek wrotehehehe MrClass , networking is my job , only spanning tree enabled on switched , only one 48 ports 1gig switch connected

:D
Nah I didn't mean to attack you or something; just wanted to make sure the backbone is fast enough to fully use the full potential of the server resources. How about adding more network ports to the server and enable link aggregation?