Moving DAS connected to LSI raid controller to a new Computer

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azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
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Hi all,

I got a quick question. I have a supermicro 836 case that I've used as a DAS connected to another supermicro box running LSI- 9285E controller. The drives in the DAS are configured as RAID 6 and the headend computer running windows 2012.
I've just purchased a new server that I want to use as the headend for the DAS but I am not sure how to migrate the data.
I assume, I would just shut down the old system, move the controller from the old headend, install on the new server, connected it to the DAS and power it up, and all will be good to go.

I've done something similar on system with adaptec controller and I think the controller retain the array information when moved to different computer, but not sure about LSI.

Has anyone have any suggestion what is the best way to do this ?

Thank you much.
 

Chuckleb

Moderator
Mar 5, 2013
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Minnesota
Yes, this is how the LSI cards work. The metadata about the array is written to the end of the disks so you could switch slots that they are in and it will still be able to reassemble. Just make sure that all the cables and plugged in tight and power it up.
 

azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
768
251
63
how bout the windows partition within the raid ? how will a new windows identified a partition from a different machine ?

thanks
 

BigXor

Active Member
May 6, 2011
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Pennsylvania, USA
bigxor.com
NTFS formatted arrays or drives are Windows standard and will be picked up by the new Windows system.

Using the same LSI card will keep the array intact. Changing to a similar LSI card may cause the new card to see the array as foreign, in which case just import the foreign array.
 

azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
768
251
63
Thanks for all the info, I was able to successfully moved the DAS to a new server successfully. Most importantly all data was intact :)
Anyway, as I was looking to check how things are I noticed that in LSI Storage manager, my drives shows up with Negotiated link speed UNKNOWN. I did some test and benchmark and it seems to be better (maybe because new headend have much better CPU) ??
Still trying to figure out why this is showing UNKNOWN and just wondering if you guys knows what could cause that ?

Thanks
 

Chuckleb

Moderator
Mar 5, 2013
1,017
331
83
Minnesota
If you can, check to see what the link speed says in the WebBIOS (control-h while booting). You can get there by clicking on a drive and hitting next 2x.

I have been looking at this for 2 weeks now. See what it is linked at. The speed there is determined by the slowest - raid card, cable, backplane, drive. I had backplane issues so linked at 1.5Gbps.