Starting and target RAID levels for Virtual Disk Reconfiguration and Capacity Expansion

After you have created a virtual disk, the possibilities for reconfiguring the virtual disk depend on the controller, RAID level, and available physical disks.

Table 1. Possible scenarios for reconfiguring a virtual disk on PowerEdge servers
Controller Starting RAID Level Target RAID Level Comments
PERC H330 Adapter, PERC H330 Mini Monolithic, PERC H330 Mini Blades, PERC H330 Embedded, PERC H730 Adapter, PERC H730 Mini Monolithic, PERC H730 Mini Blades, PERC H730P Adapter, PERC H730P Mini Monolithic, PERC H730P Mini Blades, PERC H730P Slim, PERC H740P Adapter, PERC H740P Mini Monolithic, PERC H830 Adapter, PERC H840 Adapter, PERC H730P MX, PERC H745P MX PERC FD33xD/FD33xS, PERC H745, PERC H345 Adapter, PERC H350 Mini Monolithic, PERC H350 Mini Mono Low Profile, PERC H355 Front/Adapter, PERC H755 Front, PERC H755 Adapter, PERC H750 Adapter, and PERC 755N RAID 0 RAID 1 Add a single disk.
RAID 0 RAID 0, RAID 5 Add at least two additional disks.
RAID 0 RAID 6 RAID 6 requires a minimum of four disks. Reconfiguration from RAID 0 to RAID 6 requires at least three additional disks even when this exceeds the 4-disk minimum that is required by RAID 6.
RAID 1 RAID 0 With or without adding additional disks
RAID 1 RAID 5, RAID 6 Add at least one additional disk. RAID 6 requires a minimum of four disks.
RAID 5 RAID 0 With or without adding additional disks
RAID 5 RAID 5, RAID 6 Add at least one additional disk. RAID 6 requires a minimum of four disks.
RAID 6 RAID 0, RAID 5 With or without adding additional disks
RAID 6 RAID 6 Add at least one additional disk.
RAID 10 RAID 10 With or Without adding additional disks
PERC S130, S140, S150, and S160 RAID 0 RAID 0 With or without additional disks
RAID 1 RAID 1 Without additional disks
RAID 5 RAID 5 With or without additional disks
RAID 10 RAID 10 Without additional disks
NOTE:  The order of the controllers displayed on Storage Management may differ with the order of the controllers displayed in the Human Interface (HII) and PERC Option ROM. The order of the controllers does not cause any limitation.
NOTE:  When creating virtual disks using software RAID controllers, the information that is related to the physical disks that are linked to the virtual disk is enumerated or displayed on Storage Management after a short delay. This delay in displaying the information does not cause any functional limitation. If you are creating partial virtual disks, it is recommended that you provide Storage Management adequate time between each partial virtual disk creation process.