Q: Expanding xServe RAID Array - updated info sought.

I don't want to have to reformat the RAID and I don't want to lose data because...

1) The organization will suffer extended downtime.

2) I don't have ready access to 3TB of empty storage to back up the entire contents of the RAID.

These and Apple's documentation are a few of the many different sources of info on this topic I've sought.

With apologies in advance to William Lloyd, who has answered many of these questions.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/3330193

https://discussions.apple.com/message/3643384

https://discussions.apple.com/message/4543149

My (familiar) situation.

I inherited administration responsibilities for an xServe RAID using the latest firmware (1.5.1).

The xServe is an intel xeon dual 2 GHz, running Mac OS X Server 10.6.8

The RAID had six (sigh) drives in the left controller. None in the right.

When I became admin, one of these six was dead. So I went on eBay and got three refurb ADM's.

--one to replace the dead drive.

--another to expand the RAID 5 to a full seven drives. (from 2.5T to 2.73T)

--a third to put on the shelf as a spare.

Now then.

The replacement drive rebuilt beautifully. Happy 6 drive RAID.

I put in the 7th drive and expanded. It took several days.

I'm at the point of "merging" slices that gives everyone pause about losing data.

Much discussion here about whether this can result in added capacity without destroying data relates to earlier versions of Mac OS X Server and G5 not Intel xServes. So that's a point that I think I could use some clarity on. Can Intel Macs can expand the file system with this slice-merging function without data loss whereas Power PC Macs cannot?

Next, my RAID as I inherited it was one slice. That is to say, one volume. One partition. In RAID Admin under "Arrays and Drives" all the little drives display a [1]. They did when the RAID was degraded to 5 drives. They did when I added the 6th drive replacement. They do now, having used the Expansion function under "Advanced" to add the 7th drive.

So, next question. WAS IT EVER SLICED?

That seems to be a deal-breaker for merging slices without data loss.

For this, I looked in RAID Admin to my Events tab which dates all the way back to 2008.

I see exactly zero mentions of slicing anywhere. Come with me on a journey, won't you?

You'll see my expansion and verification up top.

The drive failure in October 2013.

Other exciting things. But no slicing.