Clone a RAID5 array to a single IDE HDD, possible???

Hello.

I looked around to see if anyone had asked about a case like mine, but found none so I'll try my case.

I have a customer running on a w2k server with Exchange, and as a file server in addition to a few other applications. The server is running on a RAID5 3 * 73GB Maxtor disks and is close to a real disaster due to <5% free disk space and one of the RAID5 disks have died, leaving 2 disks working for 3.
I know there is an Intel HW RAID controller, but the customer have noe documents what so ever, nor does he have a complete overview of what his box is running. Both OS and data is one the same RAID5 array!!

He wants me to guarantee 100% uptime, no data loss and a quick fix. I've told him I'm not really comfortable with the situation and also informed him that this will cost both money and time. I'm not going to rush in to this, but the risk is that the system can die any time.

Here is my plan - the question is if it is possible to do it this way with your software and if so, what do I have to prepare in order to make it work?

First I'll take the baby off the LAN to isolate all data and keep everything from receiveing/adding up data during the process.

I'd then like to try to add a disk on the motherboards IDE interface, and clone the system onto that disk in order to have the possibility to work on that disk if the system dies on me during my work.

After securing the state of the system with a clone, I'll replace the dead disk with a new one and then rebuild the array on 3 disks. The clone will be my backup if anything goes wrong during this process, so if the worst case happens I want to be able to boot the clone on the IDE disk so my customer can continue to work while I give my self time to rebuild a fresh system on a new set of disks and with a different disk configuration.(2 times RAID1 with 4 disks, one RAID1 for the OS and one RAID1 for the DATA))

Will the clone work if I do this?

Any replies to this is higly appreiated.

 

Hello Arild,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

First of all, please be aware that there are two approaches available:

Disk Clone - transfers the entire contents of one disk drive to another;

Create Image - creates a special archive file for backup and disaster recovery purposes;

Please take a look at this FAQ article explaining the difference between Clone Disk and Backup approaches in more detail.

What concerns Microsoft Exchange running on the server having the problem, please note that it is recommended to stop all database operations prior to creating an image or cloning the hard drive. You can also perform disk imaging\cloning operations in the so-called rescue mode (e.g. using Bootable Rescue CD), since there is no operating system or any applications running in this case. Please read more in this FAQ article.

According to the above listed facts, I would recommend you to follow the below scheme in order to accomplish your goal:

1. Boot the server having the problem from Bootable Rescue CD created using either Acronis True Image 8.0 Server for Windows or Acronis True Image 8.0 Enterprise Server for Windows;

2. Create an image of the entire server hard drive saving it to any type of the supported media (e.g. CD, DVD, internal\external hard drive, ZIP drive, network drive, etc.);

3. Verify the image integrity by means of the embedded Check Image tool;

4. Turn off the server, repair RAID by installing the new disk;

6. Boot server from Bootable Rescue CD once more and restore the image;

7. Boot into Windows.

You can find more information on how to use Acronis True Image 8.0 Server for Windows and Acronis True Image 8.0 Enterprise Server for Windows in the respective User's Guides.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Just wondering how you will guaranty 100% uptime if the system gets infected with virus, malware etc. Any consideration for this?