Installing a Smart Array Card

[AdmanOK]

I have a Proliant ML350-G2 that currently has 2 x 36GB drives installed in the drive cage, which is connected to the onboard SCSI controller. These drives are then split into a 4GB OS Partition and the remainder is a data partition. There is also the small Compaq utilities partition. These partitions are then mirrored over to the second drive using Windows software raid features. I have purchased a Smart Array 532 controller to install in this server, and would like to connect the drive cage to this conroller rather than the onboard one. I tried to do this, but then the server did not boot. The reason I need to install a RAID card is to add 4 x 72GB drives in a RAID 5 array. I would also like to convert the soft RAID 1 to a hardware RAID if possible. When I tried plugging the cage into the 532 controller the server would not boot! Does anyone know how I can achieve this migration without having to reinstall the server? All help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Lou0686]

Hi,

You say it doesn't boot, did you set the RAID control as the primary boot device in the BIOS?

What errors do you get?

I don't think you can just connect those devices to the controller and expect it to boot. What you will have to do is backup the data, configure the contoller and then restore the data.

Lou

 

[AdmanOK]

Yes I did mark the Array controller as the primary boot device.

 

[montybd]

Hi. You did not mention if you set the boot controller to be the new 532. When prompted hit the f9 or f10 (which every it prompts you to use) to set the correct boot controller.

 

[sandav92]

You can not migrate software RAID to hardware RAID it does not work. You have to reinstall. When i worked at Compaq for the proliant them this was attempted serveral times and never worked. Sorry.