Transfer MSA20 from SA to MSA1500 ?

[rfelgner]

Hi all,

it's possible, to connect a MSA20, wich was direct connectet at SmartArrayController to a MSA1500 without loose the date?

I think no, because the controller inside the MSA20 works in different modes between SA and MSA1500...

Correct? / Experience?

Thanks + greetings
Rainer

[Uwe Zessin · Accepted solution]

Correct, data cannot be retained. When connected to a SmartArray, the SmartArray Controller in the MSA20 does all RAID functions. When connected to a MSA1500cs, the SmartArray Controller in the MSA20 encapsulates each disk drive in a JBOD (watch out: the SmartArray calls this a RAID-0) and leaves the RAID operation to the MSA1500cs.

[Diego Castelli]

FIRST OF ALL:
Make backup ANYWAY and check the consistency of the data.

SECOND:
I don't know if you can migrate the whole MSA20 (i don't think so).

But have you had a look at DAS to SAN migration manuals?

here it seems to be possible...
http://www.hp.com/sbso/productivity/howto/san/best_practices.html

as far as i can tell you the possibility should be:
turn MSA20 off (offline procedure).
remove all the disks offline.
attach the MSA20 to the MSA1500
insert the disks again in the MSA20

But i hadn't read deeply the manuals.
Look for an offical step-by-step guide before proceeding.

Bye!
Diego

[Uwe Zessin]

The page you quote says:
""Investment protection - Re-use existing SCSI universal disk drives in your new MSA array""

DtS (DAS to SAN) requires that the (SCSI) disk drives are plugged in when the MSA1000 / MSA1500cs / MSA1510i is powered on. The migration is done as part of the controller boot sequence, not when you plug in a disk.

[Jonathan BM]

It might work, since the Smart Arrays are meant to see the disks attached to it at boot, and get the configuration from the metadata on them, However I can give you this pointers before doing it:

- Backup the data first.

- If the MSA 1500 already has something attached with arrays and luns configured, this will not be possible, you would need to delete the configuration of the MSA20 drives before attaching it. This is because the MSA 1500 probably has an Array 1, 2, etc already configured, if the MSA 20 drives have a configuration already there will be a conflict with the same array and lun numbers in different sets of disks.

- When attaching the MSA 20, It is better to do it offline.

[rfelgner]

Thanks all,

I will try it, but only as second variant...
:-)

Thanks a lot
Rainer