Moving Disks between DL380 Server version

[topokin]

I have some DL380 G2 Servers that are giving problems, they often get stuck while rebooting. At the same time I have some free G3 and G4 models, on which I can move the application over to. My thouhgt is to move all Disks, including the OS Disks (Windows Server 2003) over from the troubled G2 system unto the G3 or G4 model.

I have done this before between the same generation model without any problem, could such also work with different generation model?

My assumption is that the RAID configuration is written unto the controller.

Thanks for your tips

[Matti_Kurkela · Accepted solution]

The Quickspecs links for DL380 G2, G3 and G4:

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10902_div/10902_div.HTML

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11473_div/11473_div.HTML

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12028_div/12028_div.HTML

According to those, the integrated SmartArray models in these servers are:

• DL380 G2: SmartArray 5i
• DL380 G3: SmartArray 5i Plus
• DL380 G4: SmartArray 6i (3.5" SCSI disks) or SmartArray P600 (2.5" SAS disks)

Generally, upward migration should be OK. In particular, moving from G2 to G3 would seem to be pretty safe.

The RAID configuration is stored on the disks. When the system is powered up, the controller checks the configuration information on each disk and if it sees a consistent set of disks, it will accept them and will use them without question. If it detects an incomplete RAID set or an inconsistent configuration, it will display a prompt on the console at boot time. So when you move the disks, always move each complete RAID set together.

The OS may need updated/different drivers to handle the new hardware. Before the migration, make sure that the SmartArray driver version you have is capable of supporting the SmartArray model of the new hardware. Also check the firmware version levels: migration from an older firmware level to a newer one should obviously be OK, but if the destination system has older firmware than the source system, you may encounter problems.

(It might be good to pre-emptively update the firmware of the destination G3/G4 to the latest level before the migration, just to be safe. These models are all so old, even the latest firmware version for them should be quite well-tested by now.)

[topokin]

Moving the disks from G2 to G3 worked fine. appearently our systems have the same RAID controller type.

As G2 to G4 was giving some problme in respect of booting the OS (Windows Server 2003) through, I decided to migrate it with backup and restore, the applied SupportPack.

Thanks.