Buckrogers

Hi

Quick question for anyone with Compaq experince......


From what information I have read regarding Compaq 3200 Array controller, it leads me to belive that you can remove a set of 5 HDD's (Raid 5) from one server and as long as they are re-installed in the same order that they were pulled, disc 1,2,3 etc, then the exisiting array (and assuming data) will remain intact, when the discs are put into another server?

The two servers are identical, both Proliant 1600, both with 3200 Array controllers, same processors, memory, BIOS verision etc.

TIA

Buck

ozzy

Yes, they can. You need to run the Compaq utility to "import" the array into the controllers config.

I installed 2 x 1600's on some Malaysian Frigates years back and we tested this theory a couple of times. I can't remember the exact steps (it was back in '99), but it can be done.

Stefan

Buckrogers

So is the array config also stored on the HDD's?

No "export" required before pulling the drives out?

Thanks

Buck

ozzy

I don't remember ever doing the export. IIRC, the config details are stored on the disks and the controller just reads this back into it's config.

Obviously do a full back first

Gillp95

The data is striped across all the disks and on each hard disk is stored the parity block. If the drives are installed in the wrong order then the parity blocks will no longer match up.

On some of the raid cards they have removable cache, so if you were to move the disks to a new server you can unplug the module then plug it in on the new server. Its also a fault tolerance thing, so if your raid card died, when you come to install the new card you wont have to rebuild the array and you can just swap over the cache and you'll be back to normal. IIRC, I've not touched compaq servers for a couple of years now.

ozzy

That makes sense as Gillp95 says; I do remember replacing dead RAID cards and not having to rebuild the array - just plug it in and load the config from the disks.