HP Proliant 350 with Smart Array 642 problem

[Isidoros Sideridis]

Hello.

I have an ML 350 G3 Server. I have installed Windows 2003 on a HP 36 GB SCSI HD (connected on the on-board controller).
Now I have purchased a Smart Array 642 controller and a second HD of the same size and I am willing to have RAID1.
As soon as I connect the first HD (that has Windows 2003 configured) on the 642 controller my system does not boot (even thogh I select from BIOS that first boot controller should be considered the Smart Array). And when I use the controller's utility and I select to enable the HD, then the system doesn't boot, even if I re-connect the HD on the on-board controller as it used to be. I have checked the HD on another system and the data is all there; it just doesn't boot!

Am I doing anything wrong? Is there a workaround to skip re-installing the OS on the Smart Array controller?

Thanks,
Elena

[Sunil Jerath]

Hello Elena,
The first thing you need to do is to install the SA642 controller. Just make sure that the drivers are loaded for the new controller and your server is functioning normally. Secondly, after all is normal then bring the server down and go back to F9 and change the Boot controller order to 642. Bring the server down and now you're ready to switch the cable from onboard SCSI controller to SA642. Please let me know as to how you make out. Like always make a backup before you attempt this process.

Regards,

[Sunil Jerath]

Hello Elena,
Here is the link to download the drivers for the Smart Array 642 just in case you need it:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/18460.html

Regards,

[Martin Breidenbach]

If you installed Windows WITHOUT using a Smart Array controller and then connect that drive to a Smart Array controller then you'll have to reinstall.

The Smart Array controller uses the first track of the drive to store its configuration. That means the disk layout is incompatible.

[Isidoros Sideridis]

Martin,

Unfortunately I think that this is my case... Is there any work-around for this? Is there a way to restore my initial OS and settings with an imaging software (eg ghost, acronis trueimage) after installing the controller with a new OS?

Otherwise I guess that I may use NT backup with system state restore (method that I don't really trust that much...)

Thanks a lot!
Elena

[Martin Breidenbach · Accepted solution]

If Windows was installed using a Smart 5i controller then the Smart 642 should read the drive. Windows may need a different driver (see other messages).

If the drive was installed using a 'normal' SCSI controller (adaptec, symbios logic...) then even connecting it to a Smart Array controller can erase all data on the drive because the Smart controller overwrites data on the beginning of the drive where also the location is where the 'old' partition table and maybe the NTFS partition boot sector was.

If that already happened then the data may be lost.

If Windows still boots ok when it is connected to the 'old' controller then it should be possible to make an image and transfer it to the 'new' hardware configuration. You should add the Smart 642 driver before you do that.

[Ries Spruit_1]

Hi there, I just tried the exact same thing only with Windows 2000... And I believe I got in the same trouble!

I had a Windows 2000 system disk, connected to the on-board controller. I installed the Smart Array 642 and its drivers in Windows 2000. No problems so far.

Only when reconnecting the system drive I made the mistake of promoting it to a Raid 0 Array via the boot menu of the Smart Array card. I promoted the drive to a logical drive and set the bootorder so that it would boot from the Smart Array.

It does not boot, although it checks the C: drive. When I reconnect the drive to the internal SCSI card, it does boot.

What am I forgetting? should I run fixboot in the recory console? Or some other tool?

Thanks alot,
Ries

[Jon Ward]

See if you can find a FDISK utility on a bootable DOS or Windows diskette. If the partitions are not viewable, they are likely gone.

The SCSI controller and the Smart Array Controllers uses a different scheme to organize data on the drives. As a result, migrating data from one to the other may cause data loss. In any case, the data would be incompatible. When moving a hard drive from a SCSI controller to an array controller, count on rebuilding the operating system on that drive. Data can then be restored from backup if such a backup exists.

[Ries Spruit_1]

I thought that promoting a drive to a RAID 0 array would take into account any existing information on the drive (I did not receive a warning when I agreed to create the logical drive).

Actually the data is still accessible. It will even boot if the drive is reconnected the a standard SCSI controller. It just doesn't boot in the RAID 0 config.

I am still hoping to use Ghost for converting the drives. I have more trust in that than reinstalling the OS and putting back a backup.

What I want to try now is to ghost directly from the SCSI drive on to the logical drive in the RAID 0 array. I think that ought to work (because the logical drive is already promoted at that time).

The one thing I can't really find at the moment are Smart Array 642 drivers for DOS... tips anyone?

Regards,
Ries

[Jon Ward]

There are no DOS drivers for the Smart 642. It uses BIOS Int13 support, which allows DOS access to the first 2GB of the first logical drive on the controller through firmware.

Also, as you attempt to restore a image onto the Smart 642, the 642 drives will have to have been installed previously into the image, or the image will fail to boot.

[Ries Spruit_1]

Hi Jon,

First of all, thanks for your support.

From your remarks I understand that doing this via an image almost is not an option.
I'll keep at it a bit more though, cause the installation I'm migrating is a fully used SBS 2000 installation, including SQL Server and Interbase DBs. Ghosting would be so much easier than reinstalling..

What I can achieve is getting Windows 2000 to work on the Smart 642 when then the drive is not part of a RAID array. When I promoted the drive to a RAID 0 array via ACU it seemingly only lost the boot config. Perhaps if I promote the drive via the Windows based array config tool the boot config will be taken into account?

What also might be an option is to find an app. which will let me transfer an image under Windows. I could install a temp. Windows OS on an IDE drive, boot from that and then ghost from on-board SCSI to Smart 642 RAID 0. Drivers shouldn't be a problem then.

If I should stop messing about, just say so ;-)

Regards,
Ries

[Jon Ward]

Moving images across dissimilar controllers will always be a messy business.

An alternative is to perform a OS migration. This requires two computers (in your case anyway). Essentially, the source computer would be a computer with the SCSI hard drive. The target computer would have the Smart Array Controller and it's own hard drive. During the migration process, drivers are installed, etc. prior to the transfer of "data" (files, registry, etc.)

The problem with this is of course additional equipment is necessary. Even if you can borrow another computer temporarily, you would need another hard drive.

[Ed Lion]

I have a question related to this issue. I have an ML350 with a Smart Array 642 that I want to duplicate to other identical ML350s. If there's no DOS driver, I can't use Powerquest Deploycenter... how can I go about this?

[Jon Ward]

Try using a package that does not utilize DOS storage drivers, such as the hp Rapid Deployment Pack. Refer to http://h18013.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/rdp.html for details.

[Ries Spruit_1]

I just thought I'd give you the results of the quest I described a few posts above.

Working title:

Budget migration from dynamic disk to Smart Array 642? No way!

The plan was: Install a temp. OS on a temp. harddrive and use Powerquest DriveImage to transfer the image from a dynamic mirrored diskset to an array on a Smart Array 642.

The problems/showstoppers were:

- ML350 G2 will not boot from an IDE disk.
- DriveImage only runs on Windows 2000/XP Prof, not server
- Dynamic mirrored disksets are not accesible under Windows 2000/XP Prof.*

All this I learned after spending roughly two hot summerdays in a broomcloset with an ML350, wrecking my own little RAID 1 array in the process, because I needed the borrow a SCSI drive...

Options:

- Use a imaging product meant for servers and pay roughly EUR 1200 instead of EUR 35,-
- Do a fresh install of Win 2000 srv on the new Array and drop a full backup on top, as described above**.

I hope somebody (besides me learns from this) because broomclosets and hot summerdays are a bad combination.

I'm still not were I need to be with the ML350 in question. So I'll probably be trying option nr. 2 on the next hot saturday.

Kind regards,
Ries



*: See http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkb_cnc_klvo.asp

**: See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q249694&SD=MSKB&