Installing an alternate RAID Controller on a DL380

[Cliff Taylor_1]

I have a customer that has a DL380 which is operation and is running off the built in 5i RAID controller. For one reason and another they want me to fit a 532 RAID controller and have the disks run off that. Is this a traight forward operation and in any event how do I go about it without losing existing data?

[JohnWRuffo]

Yes, it is a one to one swap. In fact, you only need to attach the "short SCSI cable" to the 532.

One question, performance will not increase over the 5i vs. 532 unless they are asking for a PCI duplex solution? If they are wanting to split the drive cage, then you may have to work out the logical break up of the disks.

Which DL380 is this, a G2 or G3?

[Doug de Werd · Accepted solution]

yes it is pretty straight forward. Basically you just power off the server, add the new card, go into System Config and change the boot order to have the new card be primary. During initialization at next boot, the SA532 will identify all of the existing RAID arrays and volumes, and you should be set to go. You might want to check to see that you have all the latest firmware updates for both the server and SA532.

As always, just in case, I would recommend making sure you have a backup, but most likely you will not need it. The SA532 should just pick up the old configuration automatically.

Here is a doc that describes how to do it on an older model, but it should be essentially the same:

ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/servers/proliantstorage/arraycontrollers/upgrade-intsa.pdf

Also, check page 2-5 of this doc (again, similar to what you need to do)

ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/supportinformation/techpubs/user_reference_guides/135606-6.pdf

Thanks,
Doug

[Cliff Taylor_1]

Thanks Doug and Joyn, that was a great help. I'm not sure how to reply to you indiviually as this is my first time on this forum.

By the way John, it was a G2 server.

Someone has also suggested that before going into system config I also the sriver under W2K first. That's seems like a good idea.

[JohnWRuffo]

The 532 and 5i share the same driver package.

Here is the latest version if you need it:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/19606.html