Upgrading Integrated Array chip to 4200?

[Brian Roberson_1]

Sorry to cross-post, but I wanted to make sure I had the right forum:

We initially bought the integrated array chip for a ML370. We found the performance to be pitiful. We now have a Smart Array 4200. We run Windows 2003. We have 3 9 gig drives in a RAID 5 set. Has anyone successfully moved their array over from the integrated array chip to a Smart Array controller and got it to boot into Windows 2003? I understand that most RAID configuration is stored on the drives. Would appreciate any specific help here.. Thanks!!

[Vijay_44]

Brian,
You are right, the array configuration is stored on the drives itself. You should be able to migrate the array controller. The two controllers use the same driver.
Recommended steps:

Put in the SA4300 controller in the server but do not connect the drives to it yet.
Run the SCU so that the server picks up the SA4300 controller.
Update the driver for the SA4300 controller
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/17777.html
Reboot
Run the SCU change the SA4200 to be the boot controller.
Shut the server down and connect the drives from the integrated array controller to the SA4300 controller.

It's also recommend to update the firmware

[e4services]

Are you sure it is the RAID controller? or just a system problem that makes there appear to be slow disk access.
I have seen a similar problem on ML350 G3 with Windows 2003.It was worse, creating blue screen with Hardware Malfunction error while copying large file. It seems there is some incompatibility btw win2003 and the integrated network card on the server. The solution was to replace the nic with another one and it has worked fine.

[Brian Roberson_1]

Well when it takes like 10 minutes to unzip a 100 meg file - i start thinking disk subsystem. Its definitely some sort of I/O problem. I ran a disk keeper defrag. It seemed to help out some. I believe the lack of write cache on the integrated array and only 8 meg read seems to affect it the most.

Brian