HP RAID

[Michael]

Hi all,

 

Soon I'll be undergoing a project to migrate from a HP B140i software RAID to a HP P440/4GB hardware RAID on a Gen9 server.

 

Question is (according to the specs), is that it's possible to migrate the existing RAID without destroying or re-building it, but I'm not entirely clear how.

 

By shutting down the server, installing the P440/4GB RAID card, powering back up and installing drivers I'm clear on; but it's the swapping of the cables I'm unsure about after a second shutdown.

 

Once swapping/replacing the cables from the onboard SATA controller with the relevant SAS/SATA cable and plugging into the P440/4GB, will the Intelligent Provisioning BIOS do all the work? I can't seem to find any specific instructions online what the correct procedure is (short of contacting HP), but thought I'd post here first. Thanks!

[Michael]

Just to update on this -

 

Once the P440 controller is detected in Device Manager, you're good to go to shutdown the server and replace the SATA cable accordingly with the SAS/SATA cable connecting directly into the controller.

 

Pressing F9 at startup, you can then disable on the onboard B140i controller as this is no longer required. The HP boot up sequence won't keep reminding you it needs configuring.

 

I've performed this on -

 

2 x DL60 Gen9, updating a B140i > P440/4GB

1 x DL80 Gen9, updating a H240 > P440/4GB

 

No re-configuration of RAID arrays was required! It just works as the RAID metadata remains on the drives themselves. Hope this helps someone else!