Upgrading from on-board SCSI to Smart Array 641 - ML350 -G3

[Edd Walch]

I have a Proliant ML350 G3 running Win 2k svr and I want to install a smart array 641 controller. It has two existiing scsi disks and I intend to add a third of the same capacity. The existing two disks are mirrored so I need to be able to configure the 2nd disk to be part of the raid array and the third disk to be redundant unless 1 or 2 fails. Is it possible to do this and retain the Win 2000 svr installation on disk 1, or will I have to format the whole lot and re-install win 2k svr?

[e4services]

It is unclear, with out testing, whether this operation will be successful. RAID controllers, even the new IDE, often use a differnet translation table to address the drives. When swapping from a std SCSI controller to a RAID controller, data may be lost.
We and others here, have had luck with the NetRAID series. Adding the controller to the system, rebooting, installing the drivers for the RAID controller, shutting down, taking an existing SCSI drive from a std controller, adding it to the RAID controller, configure the array RAID 0, but then not completeing the "Initialization" of the new logical drive (formatting if you will), saving the configuration and restarting.
Then there is the question, for our situation, of the boot.ini addressing the correct location of the boot sector once the drive has moved.
What I would suggest, if you can not back up and restore, to add the 641 to the sytem, restart, load the drivers, verify the the controller is now part of Windows. Shut down, remove one of the mirrored drives and then verify that the system will restart with one half of the mirror gone. Shut down and add the remove disk to the 641 and restart. Configure the 641 with the new drive as RAID 0 and do not let it initialize the drive. restart and see whether the old logical drive is there or is unreadable. If you can read it, you can change the boot.ini to the what ever the new drive location is for Windows.

[HGN]

Hi

I think the chance of retaining the data is almost 0 in the sense when you connect these drives to the array controller and create the array,this might wipe the data.

Rgds

HGN

[Ivajlo Yanakiev]

Make backup anyway :))

[Edd Walch]

Hi
Thanks for the input, you learn more every day.

I did try to do more-or-less what you suggest here but I could not persuade the machine to boot from the original disk on the new controller or back on the on-baord scsi. In the end I installed 2k svr on the new blank disk then added the two mirror disks in slot 1 & 2 on the on-baord scsi controller. I then broke the mirror set and then tried again to boot one of the drives in the on-baord controller and the new 641, neither would boot. I then decided to just copy everything I needed to a safe location then just started from a fresh install of 2k svr using the smart array card set to raid 5.

It is all up and the SQL data is recovered and now in a more sensible location where it will be backed up.

[Edd Walch]

I ended up formatting all the drives and installing from scratch. All working fine now.