Can the RAID controller in a DL360 G7 be swapped out without losing the disk drive contents??

[Tom Lyczko]

It presently has a HP P410i/ZM (SAS Array Controller) installed.

I'm researching whether it can be swapped out for a controller with pass-through capability.

Which HP RAID controllers HAVE pass-through capability??
Thank you, Tom

[Robert_Jewell]

The metadata regarding the logical volumes is stored on the disk drives, so to answer your question literally, yes.  However, if you are moving the disks from the internal P410i to an add-on controller you may have problems if the new controller is significantly different.  I havent done this myself so I cant speak from experience, but I would caution that a backup be performed before doing anything.

> Which HP RAID controllers HAVE pass-through capability??

Do you mean controllers with shared ports (internal and external)?  Most controllers have both internal and external ports, but are all on different channels.  Check out the following for options regarding HP SmartArray:

www.hp.com/go/smartarray

-Bob

[Tom Lyczko]

All I know now is that the new VMware VSAN apparently requires a pass-through RAID controller within the server.

We will all know more in the coming months when VMware releases it with the expected outrageous price tag. :)

Thank you, Tom

[Jimmy Vance]

To answer your original question "Can the RAID controller in a DL360 G7 be swapped out without losing the disk drive contents??" We need to know what controller you plan to replace it with.  If it is not replaced with another model Smart Array controller, the answer would be no.

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@Tom Lyczko wrote:

All I know now is that the new VMware VSAN apparently requires a pass-through RAID controller within the server.

We will all know more in the coming months when VMware releases it with the expected outrageous price tag. :)

Thank you, Tom

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I don't work much with WMware anymore. According to this article I don't think VSAN requires it, but it works better with controllers that support this mode.

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2013/09/vsan-and-storage-controllers.html

The H221 (article mistakenly calls it an H221i) they mention is not a RAID controller, it is simply an HBA. THe H221 is normally used to connect a server to the P2000 G3 MSA which has Smart Array controllers in the storage system itself.

[Tom Lyczko]

From http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware_Virtual_SAN_Whats_New.pdf:

“Each vSphere host participating in the VSAN cluster requires a disk controller. This can be a SAS/SATA host bus

adapter (HBA) or a RAID controller. However, the RAID controller must function in what is commonly referred to

as pass-through mode or HBA mode. In other words, it must be able to pass up the underlying hard disk drives

(HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs) as individual disk drives without a layer of RAID sitting on top. This is

necessary because VSAN will manage any RAID configuration when policy attributes such as availability and

performance for virtual machines are defined. The VSAN Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) will call out the

controllers that have passed the testing phase.”

This explains what one needs and the characteristics required etc.

HCL has not yet been adequately updated as of today...

[Casper42]

So you want the RAIDed drives to somehow magically maintain the data when you move them to a simple HBA that treats them as a JBOD?

First off, NO, that won't work.

Second, don't forget there is an entire layer of VMware software in between that's not going to work either. vSAN basically takes over the disks and creates its own Object Store across multiple drives and multiple nodes.

Backup your data and then reconfigure everything
OR
Use the HP StoreVirtual VSA which supports basically all the same features and works fine with a RAID Controller.

PS: vSAN is still in Beta and from what I heard at VMworld, will NOT be free so you will have to buy licenses for it when it comes out.