RAID migration

[Anthony Chavez]

Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 07:10:31PM -0600, Anthony Chavez wrote:
>> Dear freebsd-questions,
>>
>> I have a HighPoint 1820 RAID controller that is using 1 channel for an
>> OS drive and 3 channels for a RAID-5 array.  I'm interested in migrating
>> to a new (possibly non-HighPoint) card, and am wondering if I will be
>> able to plug the OS drive into one channel on the new card and have it
>> "just work."  Is it a safe bet that it will?
> 
> It "probably" will work, assuming that the OS disk is not configured
> as a RAID or array member in the RAID cards' BIOS.  Meaning, if you're
> using the disk on the controller purely in a "JBOD" fashion, yes, it
> should work.

In the WebGUI's "logical device information" section, that particular
drive is listed as a "hard disk" whereas the other 3 are clearly spelled
out as a "RAID 5" array.  When I shut the machine down, I will check the
BIOS itself to see if it specifically states "JBOD."  Thanks for the
pointer.

Regardless, I will be backing it up before I attempt to plug it into a
new RAID controller.

>> I'm curious to know if the array could be migrated just as easily, or if
>> I should listen to my instinct and count on bumping into
>> incompatibilities due to proprietary implementations.
> 
> I can absolutely guarantee you that you will lose access to all of your
> data once you plug those 3 disks into another controller.
> 
> You need to back up all of your data from the RAID-5 array using
> something like rsync, cpdup, or dump, move the disks over to the
> non-RAID controller, format them (in whatever fashion you want),
> and then restore the backup.

Exactly what I planned to do, but figured I'd ask anyhow. ;-)

Thank you for responding.

-- 
Anthony Chavez                                  http://hexadecagram.org/
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