Can I swap NetRAID Cards in a NetServer LPr

[Eric Litman]

Greetings,

A NetRAID controller in one of the LPrs I own has recently started having issues, and now will not complete the boot cycle without user intervention. I've updated the BIOS on the card, and am still having issues, so I want to replace it with another while I get the defective card repaired.

Here's my question. I have two 9.1 drives in the system, each defined in a separate array group with one logical array per array group (each drive is its own array). Is there any path I can follow that will allow me to install a new card and recreate the arrays as I just stated without losing access to the data on those drives? If I were to clear the configuration on the existing card and recreate the arrays exactly as I just stated, with the process affect the data on the drives?

I understand that the correct procedure would be to simply restore the volumes from backup, but a contract admin who configured this machine did not put it into our backup rotation.

Thanks.

[Martin Breidenbach]

You can swap NetRAID controllers. The RAID configuration is stored on the drives and in the NetRAID controller NVRAM.

If you swap the controller then during system boot the NetRAID controller should detect a configuration mismatch.

Press Ctrl-M to enter NetRAID configuration, selet View/Add Configuration. You should be asked whether the configuration should be read from disk or NVRAM. Select disk, verify that the configuration is correct and save it.

Exit and reboot.

I've done this several times.

[Alicia White · Accepted solution]

What happens during boot? Are you seeing a POST error that prevents the server from completing the boot process without user intervention? It wouldn't happen to be an unresolved config mismatch error would it?

Which NetRAID card are you using?

What you want to do is possible. It's important to note that the NetRAID config is stored in two locations: the NVRAM of the controller and the "scratch pad" on the drives. Each drive attached to the controller also has a copy of the array config.

If you are getting an "unresolved config mismatch between drives and NVRAM" error, you will need to resolve that issue before doing anything else. This error indicates that one of the drives has an arry config in its scratch pad that disagrees with the config stored on the other drives. In order to resolve that issue, you have to figure out which drive is disagreeing with the rest of them. If that is the case, please let us know and one of us can walk you through the process.

But, assuming you are NOT getting the "unresolved mismatch" error, there is a way to do transfer the config from one controller to another:
1. Shut down the server and disconnect the drives from the controller (either disconnect the cable or unseat drives from their connection to the backplane);
2. Power down system and insert new controller;
3. Power up the server and you should get an error that arrays have failed (if any were previously configured on the card you just inserted)
4. Press control M to enter NetRAID Express Tools, then clear any existing config on the new controller;
5. Power down the system and reconnect the hard drives;
6. Power up the system;
7. If the controller doesn't automatically resolve the mismatch, you will see an error that says "configuration mismatch between drives and NVRAM" (the word UNRESOLVED should not appear in this error), this error means the config on the drives does not match the config on the NVRAM of the controller;
8. Go back into NetRAID express tools, from the Main Management menu, go to:
Configure > View/Add/Delete Configuration
9. You should get an option for viewing either DRIVE CONFIG or NVRAM CONFIG, view the NVRAM config first, is it correct? (probably not since you cleared that earlier);
10. Exit NVRAM config view WITHOUT SAVING.
11. Did I mention DO NOT SAVE? It's very important that you DO NOT SAVE until you have viewed both configs!;
12. Now, view the DISK CONFIG, is it correct? (it probably is);
13. Now that you have view both configs, which one is correct? Given the steps we took before, probably the DISK config will be correct.
14. Save the correct config & reboot.

Now, the existing disk config has been transferred to the new controller. You should be able to access the data on your 2 drives.

But, DO NOT follow these steps if you are getting the "UNRESOLVED mismatch between drives and NVRAM" error during POST. That "UNRESOLVED" error requires a very different trouble-shooting method.

Alicia

[Eric Litman]

Alicia,

That is EXACTLY the error message I am seeing.

Can you post the procedure for recovering from that?

Thanks

[Alicia White]

Eric,

Thanks for the points! (smile)

I just posted an answer for you on your new post on this subject at:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xbb893f9a15add711abdc0090277a778c,00.htm.

As I said in that reply, please don't hesitate to call Tech Support. They can walk you through the process of checking firmware, drivers, system config, and help you fully document the NetRAID config, which is absolutely necessary to do before attempting any trouble-shooting on this error. Chances are that such preparations won't be needed, but it's better to be safe than sorry where your data is concerned.

Good luck!

Alicia