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Can you recommend a replacement for this RAID card?

Here is the RAID information we have installed in our server:

SCSI Host #0 :	1 Devices
SCSI Controller :	LSI Logic 1020/1030 Ultra320 SCSI Adapter
SCSI Controller :	DELL CERC SATA 1.5/6ch RAID Controller

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Can you recommend a replacement for this? I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a RAID card but I would like something new to replace this card with. It doesn't have to be high-performing, either. We have three hard drives in a RAID-5 array.

Also, as a side note, if I want to replace the RAID 5 with all-new hard drives as well, should I replace the drives one at a time and rebuild until I'm through?

If you're wondering why we're doing this, it's because it's a 5 or so year-old server and we don't have the budget to purchase a new one, so we'd rather replace the hard drives, RAID card, and power supply for the time being.

Thanks!

David

You will save money and get much better performance if you just buy a pair of modern SATA2 or SATA3 disks, and use the O/S to mirror them in software.

joelsplace

Replacing the hard drives may be a good idea but changing out a working RAID card is pretty crazy. A RAID card like that is far less likely to fail than you are apt to lose the array by attempting to swap it out. If you insist on doing it you will probably have to get in touch with LSI to see what other cards (if any) will recognize your current array. Any other card you will have to backup the array and then restore it to the newly created array (right way to do it).

joelsplace

And yes, the only way to replace the drives without a backup and restore is to replace them one at a time and let it rebuild.

epichero22

ASKER

I'll say that on another Dell server I saw the RAID card malfunctioned one day. Good thing it was a mirror since I could just plug in one hard drive with no problem. That's why I want to replace the RAID card, unless that's just a freak accident that doesn't happen that often. Is that the case?

joelsplace

In my experience RAID cards hardly ever fail. I would check the card for firmware and driver updates. Dell has released some firmware updates that prevent some data loss and other failures.

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David

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David

P.S. an in-place migration for disks that are probably 5+ years old is high risk of catastrophic data loss.. Those disks will go though full rebuilds, three times, and they will be doing I/O to blocks that haven't been touched since you purchased the hardware.

Never do an in-place update on ancient hardware. Besides, all it takes is ONE bad block, and you lose data. Odds are plenty of bad blocks and/or data inconsistencies are already lurking.

epichero22

ASKER

A better "plan b" is to virtualize this entire system. You'll eliminate the RAID problem, be running on modern hardware (if you have any), not not have to worry about maintaining the beast.

You're probably right but how any idea on how much would that cost? This is a small dental office with one doctor, a secretary, and a dental assistant, so they probably don't need anything that huge.

Edit: Also, what virtualization software did you have in mind? And how can I convert what I have on the server to that?

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joelsplace

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joelsplace

VMWare also has a free converter.

epichero22

ASKER

Thanks, I'll be using this information for future projects.