I currently have a file server with 3 1.5TB disks in a RAID5 array. Since it's pretty much full, I got three additional disks (also 1.5TB each).
Now I'd like to switch to RAID6 since 6TB space is enough and I'd like to have the increased safety of raid6. While I do have a full backup – i.e. I could simply create a new array and restore the backup – I'd prefer to switch without having to restore a backup. Is this possible and if yes, how?
Best Answer
The terminology you are looking for is a "RAID level migration".
According to this, it's possible. I haven't done it, but the procedure looks like you should add the new drive as a hotspare to the existing array, then use mdadm to update the raid level and the number of raid devices..
You'll need a recent mdadm to do this: mdadm-2.6.9 (eg, centos 5.x) doesn't seem to support it, but mdadm-3.1.4 (eg ubuntu 11.10) does:
EG, add a new hotspare device, /dev/sdg, to the RAID5 array first:
Then convert into a RAID6 array and make it rebuild to a clean state. The --raid-devices 4 tells you how many drives you have in total in the new array.
I have no idea how quick this will be though. In my experience with doing raid level migrations on hardware RAID controllers, it's been quicker to create the new array from scratch and recover your backup to it.