Acronis image of RAID1?

[k0mpressor]

I'm trying to cover my bases before doing some work on a small business server this weekend and am having mixed results with my google searches, figured I'd see if anyone can speak from experience.

I've got someone who has a RAID1 setup (2x 500GB, ICH9, so software raid, right?) with one drive that has failed. The owner wants to take this time to repair the raid itself, but also increase the total amount of storage available on this server. So we are going to replace them with a pair of 1TB WD RE4's.

My question is: Can I take an Acronis image of this server in its current state, RAID1 with one failed drive, and lay it on to pair of WD RE4's in RAID1? Obviously the rest of the hardware would remain the same.

Some results after searching say that Acronis does not work with software RAID1, and others say that it does. Can anyone speak from experience with Acronis or a suggested similar piece of software or tactic?

Thanks!

 

[Rubycon]

If the machine is configured to use RAID in its BIOS then it should work with no problems. Software RAID in SBS uses dynamic disks and those can present a problem with Acronis.

In the case of the former, create an image of your current configuration, remove both disks, install new larger disks, create a RAID1 volume, reboot with Acronis recovery media and restore. Don't forget to specify the new size of your partition(s) with the extra space.

 

[k0mpressor]

Thats exactly what I was hoping for. However, even Acronis' webpage itself says that software raid is not supported.

I guess I'll just have to find out for myself!

http://kb.acronis.com/content/11681

 

[Rubycon]

RAID using the motherboard falls under hardware raid category in that list.
Just be sure the recovery CD will recognize it, if not you will need to make the BART (Windows) version and add the appropriate driver. Only the LATEST Intel RAID chipsets require this.

 

[k0mpressor]

I'm going to bump my own post as it was postponed prior(8months...), and I am finally going to upgrade these disks and fix a failing raid1 array.

Anyways, can anyone else agree/disagree with Rubycon's post? Or have personal experience?

One would think it would be as easy as booting an acronis CD, copying all partitions on the disk(assuming it sees the raid1 as ONE disk) and then restoring it onto a new raid1 created on the 1TB drives.

Any help, tips, or pointers on making this project happen would be great.

 

[groberts101]

I can tell you that the man knows his stuff and is right on the money there.

If we consider that the OROM is responsible for the stripe/parity(which is not the same as pure software raid in Windows).. and Acronis simply takes an image of what resides on the disks during the backup(be sure to include the MBR too).. it makes perfect sense that Acronis will simply copy the backup to the newly created raid.

In other words.. the ICH and OROM handle the raid.. and Acronis simply copies the logical data and cares not whether it's restored to a single drive or raided volume.

Which is why I've been able to backup/restore single drives to raids.. and vice versa.. quite literally hundreds of times through the years. As long as the correct drivers are present(ICH and Windows is easy peazy in that regard as they are extremely compatible forwards and backwards on Intel based systems).. and the MBR is copied over?.. you will be golden.

 

[k0mpressor]

Thanks for the reassurance!

Never hurts to do the homework before realizing, oh s*** that didn't work like I thought it would.