Dell Array Controllers.

[Bravo2zero]

Hi Guys,

I've got a Poweredge 2400 with the onboard RAID enabled with a 64meg DIMM. As I understand it the on-board raid only caches reads not writes.

To remedy this i've just bought an array controller (Its labelled as a american megatrends series 492 rev 3. What i am wondering is... can i install the new card, then just swap the connectors over, with the new controller recognising the current array setup?

Any help would be appreciated (i've only ever tried this sort of thing on a Compaq Array controller and it worked).

Thanks in advance

Rob

 

[NickFerrar]

I know that the RAID config is stored on the hard disks as well as the controller card so you don't lose the setup if the card fails but I'm not sure if this is written in a propritery way or not. On the Compaq you managed it on were you replacing the controller with one from the same manufacturer?

 

[adpwl1]

I've done exactly what you are asking, but I lost all the RAID settings and the data on the disks. I even went from the ROMB card to a Dell PERC 2/DC (AMI based) card.

My guess, you will probably loss all the data on the existing drives.

 

[johnics]

I think you will not lose the data on the drives but it will lose the array setup and you will then be left with no drives. data recovery statrs there. the best way is to back-up the data, then disable on-board, install new controller and run array config, restore data.

 

[Arvin4]

I have never worked with Dell Power Edge, I am not sure on the Onboard Raid. But With hardware RAID the configuration is stored in the memory on the card and the hard drives. If a card goes bad, replace the card.. and from the Raid menu.. setup the raid array as it was in the previous Card. As long as you do not inatilize the drive all data will be there. Some smart cards will actually read the Raid configuration from the drives, example is some Adaptec and Intel cards I worked with that use the RaidIO or SISL slot (PCI SLOT)... which do not have a SCSI controler but use the onboard controller.

However if you swap Raid card with another Vendors Raid card... thats a different story. That might not work.