Raid configuration storage locations

I haven't  bought the systems yet. I am looking at  PE 2900's with SAS drives. If I need to spend more to get a raid card that will allow me to move disks from one machine to another without losing the configuration, I'll do it.

Thank you for your reply.

 

I understand your response correctly, I should be able to move drives between two identical  PE 2900 machines with the integrated SAS 5/i Integrated controller and boot from them without a problem. Is that correct?

 

If the above is not correct, what controller/drive combination would I need to accomplish my objective of moving drives from a failed server to a cold backup server and restarting with a minimum delay?

 

Hi Axel,

 

  Any of Dell's PERC or CERC offerings will store the RAID configuration on both the drives and the NVRAM on the controller. In your scenario, with identical controllers you should not have any problems.

  The following is for dissimilar controllers: you have some limitations on migration from a PERC system I to a PERC system II or vise versa, the vendor's of these controllers are different, as an example, you could take drives from a PERC 2 (Adaptec) and move them to a PERC 3/DI (Also Adaptec), but not to a PERC 2/DC (AMI/LSI). You also might run into problems going to an older system, for example a PERC 5e/DC to a PERC 4/DC will have problems if the logical drive exceeds 2 TB, and lastly you need to have the same interface, a PERC 5i (SAS/SATU) cannot take drives from a PERC 4/DC (SCSI). Other considerations, if you plan to boot to the drives that you've moved, you might have issues with the drivers. With adaptec controllers you'll need to have the driver version match the controller firmware version.

 

Dell-GaryS

Axel,

 

   That is correct, the procedure cannot be done hot plug, but that is the only limitation I can think of, just keep your firmware and drivers at the same level, and you'll be fine.

 

Dell-GaryS