move MS Exchage 2010 from one physical server to another

[ms2013]

Hello,

We have MS Exchange 2010 server running on a HP Proliant DL 380 G5, MFG SKU - 470064-552 (server 1).

I have another HP Proliant DL 380 G5, MFG SKU -  459585-005  (server 2) which is slightly a newer server.

I want to move our exchange server 2010 from server 1 to server 2.

Can I just shutdown, remove the hard drives from server 1 and insert them into server 2?

Thanks.

[RobClarke41 · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately not, once you destroy the array it no longer exists.  Being the Exchange server I would apporach this very cautiously.  Your best bet is to use something like Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Server.  This will let you take an image of the Exchange server that can be used for bare metal restores.  I have done it myself several times and it works really well.

[ms2013]

Thanks, Good catch about the array

[waaronb]

It would actually work (probably). I've moved sets of disks from one server to another without any issue, including moving a set of 8 disks from a DL380 G5 to a DL360 G6 (the drivers for a P400 and P410 are the same).

Information about the smart arrays is actually kept on the disks (reserved area or something... I don't know the technical details). That allows a replacement server or controller to pick up the array information from existing drives.

You *might* want to boot up the new server first and clear out any array information that was already configured in there... remove all drives, boot up and go into the F8 array config, clear any info in there. Power off, move the disks, power on and you will see the arrays just like before, I can "almost" guarantee it. :)

Especially if moving from models so similar like a 380 G5 to another 380 G5.

The only exception might be on a DL360/380 G5 with the E200 controller instead of the P400... then I'm not so sure it would work.

This is true even if you have multiple arrays setup (2 drives in a RAID 1 and 6 in a RAID 5, for instance, like the one I recently moved).

This has worked for me even back to the G1-G4 models as long as the drive form-factor was the same. Although with some of those, I would have to preinstall the new drivers ahead of time and there were some other registry tweaks to make sure the new array driver was in the boot section.

Otherwise, the other new hardware (chipset, video, etc) can just be updated to new drivers once you're booted up.

But like I said, going from one G5 to another is easy, and even from a G5 to G6. I haven't moved drives from G5/G6 to a G7 though, and G8's use the new drive carrier. I guess technically you could mount older drives in a new blank carrier and see what happens... :)

Make a full backup of the data and know how to recover an Exchange server just in case it doesn't work and things go terribly wrong, but in my experience "it just works".