Problem installing raid 1 drives into a new server

[Drema]

We recently removed 2 operational mirrored drives from an HP NetServer LH6000r and are now attempting to install them into another HP NetServer LH6000r. The operating system on this array is Windows NT Server 4.0. The drives are in the same slots using on board raid controller. When we power the server on, all we get is a message saying "No operating system." HELP!!!

[Gerarde Delaney]

This may seem a little obvious, but on initial boot up, does the Raid Controller recognise that a logical disk exists ?

If not, run the Netraid Configuration Utility and update the Raid configuration from the disks.
Obviously, you musn't initialise the disks.

[Drema]

Yes, the new server recognized the drives and we did not reinitialize the drives (because we don't want to loose the data on the drives). Anyone else have any ideas???

[Gerarde Delaney]

Sorry Drema that my last response was a little vague.

I think that you only need to use the configuration that is on the disks. To do this you should first clear the Netraid's NVRam configuration.
Best do this by ;
a) remove the disks.
b) Enter the config utility at startup and choose Configure .. View/Add/Delete Configuration .. Clear Configuration. Confirm changes. Esc until Exit CTRL ALT DEL to restart.
c) Re-insert the disks.
d) At startup the Netraid will show no logical drives configured and will prompt you to enter the config utility.
e) Choose Configure .. View/Add/Delete Config again and then View Disk Configuration.
The disks should be showing Online.
f) Press F10 to configure. Logical drives should show Raid 1.
Save the configuration. Esc till exit and re-start.

This SHOULD allow your Netserver to start properly.

Gerarde

[Drema]

Gerarde - we tried what you said, but it still boots up saying No Operating System. Any other ideas???

[Theo Hill_1]

On post, does it say. 1 Logical Drive Found 1 Logical drive handled by BIOS? I would verify that the BIOS is enabled on the netraid controller only. Any other bootable cards should have the BIOS disabled, so the system knows only to boot to the 2 disc mirrored set, on the netraid controller. It should be in ctrl-m either in the main menu, or under objects>adapter.

[Larry Davis_1]

gerarde, i see what you are getting at...but the key thing to note is that there must be the NVRAM Mismatch message on boot to get into the scenario you set up

The scenario is a good one, forcing the netraid to read the config info from the disks themselves and the rest of your plan should work.

Drema, are you sure the disk still boot on the other machine? The slots you put the HDDs in make no difference first of all. Second, so long as the netraid is the boot device (as opposed to onboard SCSI or the like) the drives should boot provided the netraid has the correct config, as gerarde presented.

This may seem simplistic, but were the drives software mirrored with the OS rather than hardware mirrored with the raid controller?

It sounds to me like either your new netraid is not configured correctly (most logical explanation) and the steps you say you are taking are not actually what is being done...or the config on the other machine is different than you think.

The only other explanation would be a hardware failure.