Lenovo RAID - new motherboard...?

[scottay]

Hi all,

So, my server's motherboard took a dump over the weekend. It's a Lenovo RD340, and I'm using the onboard RAID 300. The tech on the phone said that the RAID info is stored on the HDDs so I shouldn't have to rebuild the array; however, I wanted to see if anyone here has any personal experience with such matters. Is replacing the mobo going to kill my RAID config?

I just need to know so I can start planning. They're sending someone over Tues with a new board. I'm hoping we throw it in and power up as usual, but if I'm going to have to rebuild the array I need to make sure I've got a plan in place. I have backups in the case that I have to rebuild, but I really don't want it to come to that.

Thanks for your input.

 

[lcoughey]

If you value your data, I seriously recommend getting a full sector-by-sector clone of each drive before you move them into a new RAID environment. There is no going back after the damage is done.

 

[scottay]

Thanks for the reply. I have a clone image of my drives in the event that I need to use it. My question is, am I going to need it? Lenovo says the RAID info in on the drives and that I shouldn't need to rebuild my array... True or not?

 

[lcoughey]

Thanks for the reply. I have a clone image of my drives in the event that I need to use it. My question is, am I going to need it? Lenovo says the RAID info in on the drives and that I shouldn't need to rebuild my array... True or not?

If they say it will, it should. But, it wouldn't be the first time that tech support has steered someone into destroying their data.

 

[scottay]

Haha, don't I know it.

Since I can't get into the server to make a clone, do you have any recommendation on methods and/or software that will allow me to do this? The motherboard is dead, so I can't even boot from a live cd or anything at this point...

Like I said, I have an image level backup, but 2 backups are always better than one in the event that the one I have doesn't work for whatever reason.

 

[lcoughey]

I'm not sure what you mean by image level backup. When I say clone, I mean connect each drive to a stand alone system (without a RAID controller) and make a full sector-by-sector copy to another hard drive. What type of drives are they? SCSI, SAS or SATA?

 

[scottay]

Gotcha! Good idea, I'll do that. If I do that and I have to rebuild the array, would I just re-image the drives after the rebuild (obviously I'd need to configure the RAID the same way I originally did)?

They're just SATA drives.

 

[scottay]

New motherboard installed. The RAID configuration was indeed stored on the drives. I fired up the server and it chugged along like nothing happened.

 

[Altster]

New motherboard installed. The RAID configuration was indeed stored on the drives. I fired up the server and it chugged along like nothing happened.

Cool!