Change P212 for a P410

[Dermot1]

Hi,

I have a Proliant DL165 G7 with an internal P410 HBA and a P212 with external port that has a D2600 Disk Enclosure attached. The P212 is playing up (that should be the subject of a different thread) and I want to swap it out. My question is will a new controller be able to pick-up the existing disk config off on the disk enclosure or will I lose all the Array configuration and be forced to re-create the volumes and restore all the data? 

Thanks,

Dermot

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hi,

I haven't done this with a D2600.

But if you have an external MSA enclosure (like MSA60, etc) and do the same thing, the new controller will pick up the RAID config from the disks (you get an option during POST).

[Dermot1]

Well I have no choice but to try it because my server is crahsing every 4 days or so and the issue is centred round the P212 controller. I'll get a P411 and hope that it works.

Dp.

[Dermot1]

In the end HP said the error code I recieved from the controller after a crash indicated a faulty controller and they dispatched a replacment. I replaced the installed card but the P212 they sent was, 1) withut any cache 2) using an ancient firmware. Without the cache the P212 would not see the disk. I flashed the card's firmware from the command line, took the cache from the installed card and installed it on the replacement. With that, the replacement card could see the disk enclosure and reported the correct logical drive configuration. Now I have to wait and see. If the server crashes again, the problem might be with the cache on the P212 or somewhere else.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Yeah it's usually like that - the extra stuff on the card are separate spare part number.

If you want to monitor the state of the array maybe this would work:
Gather an ADU report now.
Wait a few days/weeks and then get another one.
Then run a diff/comparison between the files?

You can see if there are any errors/counters that are increasing etc.