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RocketStor 6430TS Series (RS6430TS) 12Gb/s SAS / 6Gb/s SAS/SATA RAID enclosures support Online Array Roaming. This feature is also known as “RAID Roaming”, and allows customers to migrate drives from one RS6430TS enclosure to another, without having to start from scratch or recover an array. You can even do this while the host system remains “Online” (powered on and operational).
In the above screenshot, 4 hard drives (shown on the right) are configured as a RAID 0 array, and were originally hosted by a RocketStor 6434TS enclosure. Thanks to the Array Roaming feature, these drives can be moved directly to a RocketStor 6438TS (shown on the left). The drives can be installed randomly – the original disk order does not need to be preserved; the enclosure’s RAID controller will sort this out for you.
Customers are not restricted to a RS6430TS-to-RS6430TS transition. The RAID array would be recognized by any RocketRAID 3700 (RR3700) series controller, or even an older RockerStor 6400TS/AS series RAID enclosure (which utilize RR2700 and RR4500 series 6Gb/s SAS/SATA RAID controllers).
How to Use Array Roaming while the system is online
Hot-Plug and Hot-Swap capability make this possible. An administrator can use the WebGUI or CLI management utilities to power-down and “park” the drives, which can then be moved from one controller/enclosure to another.
For this example, we will be using the WebGUI.
1.The Unplug command is provided under the WebGUI’s Logical tab.
2.Click the Maintenance link on the far-right of the interface; this will open a sub-menu.
3.The sub-menu will display several options. Click “unplug” – this will safely power off each disk, and allow them to spin-down (this process is sometimes referred to as “parking”.
Once the controller/enclosure determines the drives or ready, it will display a message on screen – the drives can now be physically removed.
Once the drives have been moved to the second controller/enclosure, power on the unit, and give it a few seconds to allow the drives to spin up.
4.Click the Rescan button on the left side of the interface – the screen should refresh after a few seconds and display the array.
It's cool how you can move drives between systems without losing data. By the way, I recently picked up a new Sky Devices phone. If anyone needs support, just call to sky devices phone number for consultation. You know, the online array roaming works perfectly with my workflow, making file management a breeze.