If I replace the array controller will my data go?
I got a question from Mike the other day about swapping the array controller on a DL380G3.
“The array controller is yellow on the HP Insight Agents, something about a battery failure – does this mean I’ll loose my array settings/data when I swap the controller?”
This is a common error, basically the on-board battery on the array controller is reporting that it has failed. The battery simply needs to be replaced, you don’t need to replace the controller. If you do replace the controller everything should be fine, I’ve done it several times before. The RAID settings and drive information is stored on the controller and the drives, so if either is replaced the server should work as it did. Log a call with your hardware support guys and get the battery replaced, it will take a few minutes, whilst you’re there consider checking the firmware is up to date and note that when the server comes back, it can take a few hours for the cache to ‘recover’ whilst the battery comes online, so you might get an error in the event log.
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Category: Servers
HP array controllers save the meta data that describes the array configuration on all the disk drives. Although it’s not required in this case, you can replace the array controller, and the new controller will read the configuration off of the disks. You can even do things like take a pair of mirrored drives from a rackmount server, and place them in a blade server to give you a quick and easy migration.