Move raid to new server, dataloss?

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BinaryLimited

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#190662 8-Jan-2016 08:53

Good morning all!

I'm looking at moving my storage ( 2tb x 16) to a new server.
Both servers are super micro but from different ages.

My raid card is an adaptec asr5405, currently have 2 x raid's setup.

My question, has anyone tried to move their hdd's and raid card to a new server without losing data?
Current OS is Windows 2012 R2.

Everyone iv asked is not sure as no one has been brave enough to try :)

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timbosan

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#1465608 8-Jan-2016 09:05

I haven't actually done this, but it should be 100%, based on the fact you have a hardware RAID controller and that is what controls the RAID set up. If you where moving disks only to another controller, then you would have problems.

I assume your OS is stored in the array, or is it on another disk?

EDIT - actually I do vaguely remember doing this a while back, with a SCSI controller and Compaq array. Long time ago but it did work. Same concepts apply.

BinaryLimited

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#1465615 8-Jan-2016 09:07

cool thanks, will get it a bash.

the OS is installed on another disk... do i need to move the OS disk to the other machine or can i install a new OS on a new hdd?

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lxsw20

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#1465616 8-Jan-2016 09:10

Thats the stuff of nightmares. Good luck!

BinaryLimited

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#1465617 8-Jan-2016 09:11

lxsw20: Thats the stuff of nightmares. Good luck!

i know right... been planning this decision for the past 6months...

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wasabi2k

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#1465669 8-Jan-2016 09:51

As has been said already it SHOULD work - maybe.

But there is no way in hell I would go near it without a backup of that data, which could be a challenge.

How is the array cut up in windows? You doing anything funky like dynamic disks?

timbosan

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#1465680 8-Jan-2016 10:09

BinaryLimited: cool thanks, will get it a bash.

the OS is installed on another disk... do i need to move the OS disk to the other machine or can i install a new OS on a new hdd?

Hmmm - that makes it a BIT harder and you are dependent on drivers for the RAID controller and how Windows has assigned drive letters.

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timbosan

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#1465682 8-Jan-2016 10:11

wasabi2k: As has been said already it SHOULD work - maybe.

But there is no way in hell I would go near it without a backup of that data, which could be a challenge.

How is the array cut up in windows? You doing anything funky like dynamic disks?

I would have assumed the OP had a good verified recent backup of all data!

But yet good point on dynamic disks. I assumed it was simply a hardware away assigned drive letter(s) in Windows. Adding Dynamic Disks on top of this makes it much harder.

BinaryLimited

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#1465877 8-Jan-2016 13:11

timbosan:
wasabi2k: As has been said already it SHOULD work - maybe.

But there is no way in hell I would go near it without a backup of that data, which could be a challenge.

How is the array cut up in windows? You doing anything funky like dynamic disks?

I would have assumed the OP had a good verified recent backup of all data!

But yet good point on dynamic disks. I assumed it was simply a hardware away assigned drive letter(s) in Windows. Adding Dynamic Disks on top of this makes it much harder.

The problem with backups is that I don't wanna spend $1500+ on hdds to back up.... blah first world problems

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timmmay

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#1465881 8-Jan-2016 13:17

So it's important enough to have on 16 disk RAID system but not important enough to back up?! As you know RAID is not a backup, you're still vulnerable to fire, theft, human error, viruses, ransomware, etc. At that data size you're looking at tape, online backups would likely be too slow to initially seed. Though you can buy 8TB disks now, so two of those is viable... starting at US$250 each so not so bad.

gzt

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#1465892 8-Jan-2016 13:30

No idea. What is the structure of the raid(s)?

timbosan

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#1465896 8-Jan-2016 13:32

timmmay: So it's important enough to have on 16 disk RAID system but not important enough to back up?! As you know RAID is not a backup, you're still vulnerable to fire, theft, human error, viruses, ransomware, etc. At that data size you're looking at tape, online backups would likely be too slow to initially seed. Though you can buy 8TB disks now, so two of those is viable... starting at US$250 each so not so bad.

I agree with timmmay - If the data is worth that much that you have gone to the trouble of setting up a quite complex RAID system, spend time/money backing it up.

10TB of Google Drive is only $100, do you have more data than that? Or like @timmmay says, buy (or borrow) a 8TB drive, add it to a USB3 dock and wait a few hours (actually, days, remember the 8TB drive have a VERY VERY slow write rate, something to do with the SMR stuff. I found this out when moving data to one).

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timmmay

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#1465900 8-Jan-2016 13:37

10TB at 50Mbps upload would take 18 days... but if you're in a data center and can get 250Mbps in an affordable way that's only 3.5 days. I doubt many hosts would accept data that fast anyway. No matter what you do it will be a multi day effort.