Transfer Disks to Alternative Server - Xen migration

[Dan Hawker]

Hi,

I have a DL380 G3 that has a single drive in it. I have an identical one with 4 setup as a RAID5 array with a logical drive. The second server uses Xen and hosts a couple of VMs, the first is a standalone. I'd like to move the first drive into the second.

The data on the disk needs to be kept, as the purpose of the move is to consolidate onto one server using Xen.

So can I transfer the drive into the first, configure it as a new logical drive that is accessible from my host OS, but *without* loosing any data???

TIA

Dan

[Steven Clementi]

Dan:

The Smart Array controller in the second server should read the single disk, and load up the same configuration as it was on the first server. The Array configuration is stored on the hard drive so that movign disks around is "easy".

You should not have to re-configure anything (on the Hardware side). The drive should just be "available" to the OS so you can access it.


Are you running Netware?


Steven

[Dan Hawker]

Hi Steven,

Hmmm, thats what I hoped would have happened. If I look at the ACU on the second server (with the first servers drive in it) all I see is the existing array, plus an *un-assigned* drive (the one I have added). It is admittedly not plugged into the same *bay* as originally, however thats because the others already are.

On server 1 it was in slot0, now its in slot5, but as I understand this shouldn't matter, yes??

WRT Netware, nope, we're purely a Linux shop (Fedora/Red Hat). I was hoping that it'd appear alongside the other array in /dev/cciss and then I could mount it as before.

Dan

[Dan Hawker]

All,

Has anyone had any experience and preferably success moving disks between servers as I have mentioned???

eg placing a drive in a different slot than it was originally in on a different server. At the end of the day, its just a drive, surely the host should be able to read it without it killing everything.

Dan

[Novausa]

I am also experiencing problems moving a drive between array controllers on Servers.

When I slot the disk into the other server it appears as unassigned in ACU and does not read the existing configuration.If I create a new single disk array it blows away the data on the disk.

I have 2 ML350 Servers one with Smart array 641 , the other with 642. I want to copy a folder with various VMSERVER machines and move it between systems.

Any assistance appreciated.

Dave

[Dan Hawker]

Hi Dave,

Well, I finally managed to glean some info and take the plunge. Here's what I found out.

As you mentioned (and I found out earlier) popping a drive and inserting into a live system, showed *unassigned drive* about which I was unsure as to whether the data would disappear if I hit the create array in the ACU.

However after asking an alternative question, it seems that it shouldn't. However I also found out that if you pop the drive and reboot the system, the controller will work out the arrays itself and launch as before.

In my environment I added a single drive that was configured as a single RAID0 array in the ACU. When I rebooted the server as predicted it worked like a charm. The host OS could see the drive contents as before. The controller names the array/logical drive and up it pops. All my data was intact and I have since started up this data as was with little configuration change as a Xen virtual machine.

As mentioned it worked just fine, but you do need to reboot the server you place the disk into for it to recognise the drive(s) properly. There was one guy on the other thread I started that tested it live, without the reboot. In his limited testing it did work and didn't hose his data, but of course YMMV.

The thread is named *will create array erase data on drives* or similar. Same author (me) and as I have to reply to that in a minute, should be very near to this thread in the list.

HTH

Dan

[Novausa]

Thank you Dan , I also found the other thread after I had posted the question - I tried rebooting the Server last night and was able to access the drive . Thank you to everyone involved.

I am surprised that this process isn't specifically mentioned in the Smartarray documentation.

During my research on the HP website before finding this forum I saw mention of a utility which allows you to import array configurations but haven't been able to find it.

Does anyone know of this ?

Thanks

Dave