Re: Upgrading to Hardware RAID SBS2000

From: Pat Horridge (pat_at_remove-spam.vet.co.uk)
Date: 09/29/04 

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 16:17:26 +0100

I have the Adaptec 2120S card which works very well.
In theory you should be able to:
Backup everything:
Install new RAID card but no drives and boot with old HD still on original
controller.
Install drivers for new Adaptec card and ensure it's seen ok by OS. (I have
had problems with the Adaptec windows management software but this is almost
certainly a specific config issue on my machine and I don't use it anyway)
Fit new drives to RAID and boot machine. Enter RAID setup and assign drives
to the raid and configure 1 massive drive.
(worth having a hotswop spare available as well. I have 3 X 73GB drives in
RAID 5 and 1 73GB drive as Hot swop plus 1 73GB as part page file and part
local images but not part of RAID)
Restart computer, still off original disk on original controller.
Configure your one massive drive to have the partitions you want (keeep some
drive space in reserve for allocation later to any partitions except the OS
partition)

Now the tricky bit.

Image your original boot partition to the new partition space.
Remove the original drive.
Ensure BIOS is set to boot of RAID
Power up and pray.

"StudioTwo" <studio_two@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:49584fba.0409290157.77c9bbed@posting.google.com...
> That was exactly the info I was looking for.
>
> I have not yet bought a RAID card, but I have an Intel STL2 server
> board. Intel recommends fitting the SRCU31.
>
> I guess I could also look Adaptec & Promise.
> Did you have any recommendations?
>
> Thanks,
> Stephen
>
>
> "SuperGumby [SBS MVP]" <not@your.nellie> wrote in message
> news:<eMz1ctTpEHA.3848@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl>...
>> depends on the RAID controller but as a general rule I'd suggest putting
>> the
>> controller in and booting your system with the drive connected to the
>> current controller. Prug'n'pray should detect the RAID and allow you to
>> install the drivers. Then shutdown and move the drive to the RAID
>> controller. She should then boot (but may not).
>>
>> Whether the drive is visible or not will also depend on the controller.
>> Some
>> controllers will automatically present the drive as a simple disk, others
>> need to be told to create an array as a single disk JBOD.
>>
>> Then there's a gotcha!!! (don't ya love 'em) We recently purchased an
>> Adaptec card which would not allow you to create a mirror set from an
>> existing drive and a new partner, the mirror creation process was
>> destructive (ie. it would create the mirror by initialising the drives),
>> funny thing was that once the array existed it could, with the addition
>> of
>> other drives, be migrated non-destructively between RAID levels.
>>
>> What RAID card?
>>
>> I suggest seeing if we can get as far as:
>> 1) loading the drivers and management software for the controller with
>> the
>> HDD connected to it's current controller.
>> 2) see if she boots
>>
>> OHHHH, and yes, step 0 should be to back up everything and/or image her.
>>

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