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Change RAID level for a volume group

You can change the RAID level for a volume group to accommodate the performance needs of the applications that are accessing the volume group. This operation changes a volume group's RAID level without impacting data I/O.

  • The volume group must be in Optimal status.

  • You must have enough capacity in the volume group to convert to the new RAID level.

  • You cannot change the RAID level of a pool.

    System Manager automatically configures pools as RAID 6.

You cannot cancel this operation after it begins. Your data remains available during this operation.

More about RAID levels

RAID LevelDescription
RAID 0 striping

Offers high performance, but does not provide any data redundancy. If a single drive fails in the volume group, all of the associated volumes fail, and all data is lost.

A striping RAID group combines two or more drives into one large, logical drive.

RAID 1 mirroring

Offers high performance and the best data availability, and is suitable for storing sensitive data on a corporate or personal level.

Protects your data by automatically mirroring the contents of one drive to the second drive in the mirrored pair. It provides protection in the event of a single drive failure.

RAID 10 striping/mirroring

Provides a combination of RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring), and is achieved when four or more drives are selected.

RAID 10 is suitable for high volume transaction applications, such as a database, that require high performance and fault tolerance.

RAID 5Optimal for multi-user environments (such as database or file system storage) where typical I/O size is small and there is a high proportion of read activity.
RAID 6Optimal for environments requiring redundancy protection beyond RAID 5, but not requiring high write performance.

RAID 3 can be assigned only to volume groups using the command line interface (CLI).

  1. Select Storage > Pools & Volume Groups .
  2. Select the volume group that you want to edit, and then click View/Edit Settings .
    The Volume Group Settings dialog box appears.
  3. Select the RAID level from the drop-down list, and then click Save .

    A confirmation dialog box appears if capacity is reduced, volume redundancy is lost, or shelf/drawer loss protection is lost as a result of the RAID level change. Select Yes to continue; otherwise click No .

When you change the RAID level for a volume group, System Manager changes the RAID levels of every volume that comprises the volume group. Performance might be slightly affected during the operation.