Question

replace LSI RAID U320-1 with Adaptec 29160 RAID

Asked by: robberbaron

Any ideas if replacing a failed LSI MegaRaid 320-1 adapter with an Adaptec 29160 (from the spare parts box) will work or even will it damage data on the RAID arrays.

Worth trying ?

2 arrays; RAID1 system, RAID5 data.

Yes speed will be lower but this an SBS server so restoring from backup to some SATA/IDE drives temporarily is a time consuming matter and would need new drive carriers.

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Asked On
2009-11-07 at 02:50:20ID24880240
Tags

RAID swap adapter Adaptec LSI

Topics

Storage Technology

,

Hard Drives & Storage

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: jamietonerPosted on 2009-11-07 at 05:08:30ID: 25766175

An adaptec 29160 isn't a raid controller it's just a standard scsi controller. When swapping raid controller you ideally want the same controller or at least one from the same manufacture, as swapping between manufactures rarely works.

 

by: dlethePosted on 2009-11-07 at 06:02:29ID: 25766357

The metadata layout is different.  If you replace the controller then your data will go away ... but the new controller will certainly talk to the same drives.

 

by: robberbaronPosted on 2009-11-07 at 12:14:57ID: 25767837

@jamie. apologies. it is a Adaptec 2110S
but dlethe comment most likely still stands.

 

by: robberbaronPosted on 2009-11-07 at 12:29:58ID: 25767898

dell perc4 are lsi oem versions. seem to be the same as the mr320 series and there are more floating around.
any thoughts.

 

by: dlethePosted on 2009-11-07 at 13:07:39ID: 25768048

The official story from LSI (and I have had this discussion with them more than once), is that OEM versions of their cards can and will have different firmware.   As such, not only is LSI contractually unable to support the controller in any way, but this also means that you run risk of destroying data if you attempt to migrate disks with live data sets between OEM and non-OEM controllers.

LSI works with the manufacturers and manufacturers are free to turn things on, off, change defaults, etc, depending on what they want to do.   While somebody somewhere in LSI has such settings, the support people don't, and even if they did, it would be a breach of non-disclosure to release it.

So bottom line, get same make/model/firmware if you want 100% confidence you will get your data back.  Anything less puts it at risk.

There is an alternative, you can invest in some data reconstruction software that will brute-force reconstruct the raw data into a physical disk, like a 2TB SATA drive, then you can use the other controller to build the data the way you want and transfer from the SATA to the new raid controller, but this is probably a bigger pain in the *ss, due to all the time, equipment, need for ghost software, etc.     It is a viable alternative if you just have no way to source the failed hardware.

 

by: robberbaronPosted on 2009-11-09 at 03:40:14ID: 31651356

thanks for tips.
picked up a U320-2 card as the firmware update applies to both.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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