Need Help Moving SQL System DB's in a Cluster

[irony34]

I have taken over responsibility of a Production SQL 2000 Cluster running on Windows 2003. I found out last week the SQL System Databases are on a RAID 5 drive spread across 2 storage arrays (MSA30's). Clearly this is not fault tolerant (if one of the storage array fails, it will wipe out 2 drives and thusly the SQL system DB's). I want to convert the RAID 5 to a RAID 1 across the two storage arrays. I am aware Microsoft has a technet article out there describing how to move system db's. However, since this is production, I don't want to get involved with reg\cluster changes.

Below is the plan I want to take. I'm very nervous about deleting the S: drive resource as I do not know if SQL server depends only on drive letter or some other cluster identifier to find it's system DB's. I do not have an environment to test this so I would appreciate any input.

1. Backup contents on S: drive (which contain SQL system DB's and nothing else).

2. Delete the S: Drive Resource from Windows Cluster Administrator

3. Delete the S: Drive in Windows Drive Manager.

4. Delete the RAID 5 Volume in Array Manager.

5. Create RAID 1 Drive in Array Manager and call it S: in Windows Drive Manager.

6. Create new Cluster Resource S: through Windows Cluster Administrator.

7. Re-Add the S: drive as a SQL Server Resource.

8. Restart SQL Server (will the SQL Server installation start up again with a new S: drive resource created???)

Thank you in advance to someone who has more experience in this than I do!

[rmiao]

Do you have anything else other than system dbs on s:\? The plan may work if nothing else, but you should still ensure have good backup of all dbs. Before you doing that, make sure you know the system. How many disks in raid5 (at least 3 disks)? Does new raid1 array (2 disks) have enough space to host those dbs? You may mean build raid10 array. But if 2 disks fail in raid1 or 2 disks in same position fail in raid10, the array fails just like raid5 does.

[irony34]

Thank you for your response rmiao.

I have nothing else but the SQL Server system DB's on that S drive. Total of 4 GB (including temp DB which I know I don't have to worry about).

Yes the current S: is a 3 disk Raid 5. The new S: drive will have 2 - 72 GB disks. So plenty of space.

Does my plan sound more risky than following Microsoft's technet article regarding moving SQL system db's? I got cold feet reading it. I'm trying to do no harm here. It's a production set up and I do not have a similar set up to test. :-(

Thx for your post.

[rmiao]

I'll leave it since it doesn't give you much benifit.