PowerVault 200s, PE 2550 + OpenManage Array Manager.

Array Manager allows you to make changes to containers (delete and create) while the OS is up and running. Obviously when you destroy an existing configuration, the data contained on it will be lost.

What kind of PERC are you using for the PV200S? If it's a Perc3 series card, be sure to upgrade to the latest firmware to be able to have the latest array manager version to work with it. This upgrade may be possibly initiated from within the OS (depends on current version of bios and what's available for download), but will require a reboot to take affect.

The PERC3/Di is the ROMB controller (Raid On MotherBoard) and should be connected to internal drives.  It is an Adaptec based controller.  The PERC3/DC and 3/DCL are external RAID controllers and are properly used for your external PV200S storage.  The latter two are LSI based controllers, with a different RAID configuration than on the Adaptec controller. Migration is not simple if going from Adaptec to LSI.

The key question with all these controllers in your system is where exactly have you plugged your PV220S cables in?

To my knowledge, a new installation of Array Manager will pick up the RAID configurations previously established at the BIOS level.  I don't think you should have to destroy and rebuild RAID groups unless migrating from one brand of controller to another.

This is not a new installation, both the server and pv 200s (drive array) have been working together in unison for over 4years.

Recently 3/4 drives failed in the array and moving the drives onto another set of 4 slots ont he array backplane did all 4 drives show green LEDs.

 

You can install array manager w/o the PERC losing the configuration. It does require at least 1, often 2 reboots (after the first reboot it may find 'new' hardware and ask you to reboot a 2nd time).

The configuration of the raid is stored on the raid controller and the drives, not in the OS (or in the array manager application).

Ah!!

So does that mean if all 4 drives are placed in another 4 slot on the backplane, the raid 5 container configuration will still work?  Or is it down to where the drives are positioned in the backplane, ie. different ids.

From what I understand if you relocate your drives to different slots then Drive Roaming should detect this at the controller level.

I haven't tried this for a complete array only for individual drives in the array and the move was detected and corrected with DR.

Theoretically you are correct that if you move the drives to different slots, the container/virtual-drive will work fine.

Also, if you stay within the same brand raid controller, butchange to a different model or generation, you also have a good chance (never guaranteed, so you're doing this at your own risk and should always have full and verified backups prior to making changes like this) of still having a working setup.

As always, prior to making any changes like this with the intentions of retaining the data involved, be sure to be on the latest bios and driver versions for the raid controller.

Well I tried this this morning but had no luck so far, got into (Ctrl + M) to see the container structure and it showed the old config with 3 of the drives failed.  After creating a new config and showing all drive as online I could not get anywhere else to create the container from scratch.

Have resorted to just rebuilding the container of 4 drives even if data is lost on those drive, but at the moment I'm going the wrong way about it am sure.

Useing a PE 2550 and PV 200S with 4 x ST318404LC scsi drives.

Any able to help on this one, thx.