Swapping out hard drives on a Gen8 server

[chuckk281]

Joe had a customer hard drive question:

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A customer wants to save Smart Array Controller (SAC) config and remove OS (Windows or Linux) drives.  Then insert a new set of drives and do another SAC config.  When done with the second set, remove the drives.  Restore original SAC config, then insert original OS drives and boot the system to the OS.

The question is, where can he store SAC config in off-line mode (no OS), so that restore happens before OS disks are accessed?  Is there a way to save SAC config on a USB drive and then mount it back upon SAC restoration?

I checked and did not find sufficient information in:

• SAC config -- http://h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c00729544
• BIOS config -- http://h20628.www2.hp.com/km-ext/kmcsdirect/emr_na-c00191707-18.pdf
• SSA admin guide -- http://h20000.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c03909334-6 .

Pointers will be greatly appreciated. 

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Info from Dan:

So he should be able to configure the Server for OS A

Then remove all the drives and factory reset the SA Card

Then insert fresh drives and configure the server for OS B

Then remove all the drives and factory reset the SA Card

As long as you remove the drives before you reset the config of the card, the drives will have a copy of the array still stored on them.

Then depending on which set of drives are put back in to the server, the Smart Array should automatically pickup on the config of that drive set and configure itself accordingly.

Its been a while since I did something like this, so obviously they should test this before considering it the absolute truth.

And info from Norman:

HPSSASCRIPTING command line tool can capture and reconfigure RAID arrays. This is available within the Scripting Tool Kit (STK) for ProLiant servers.

For further reading:

DOC:      Product Bulletin - HP Scripting Toolkit for Windows and HP Scripting Toolkit for Linux

URL:       http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/14224_div/14224_div.HTML

WEB:     Main Page - HP Scripting Toolkit for Windows and Linux

URL:       www.hp.com/go/proliant/stk

WEB:     HP Scripting Tool Kit Information Library

URL:       http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/solutions/info-library/index.aspx?cat=hp_scripting_toolkit#.VLVzMCvF-So

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Any other comments?