RAID Card Failure - What Next?

[Daryl 1]

After days of troubleshooting, I've finally isolated all possible faults on my Adaptec 1210 RAID card to one of the ports failing so my RAID 1 configuration isn't operating properly anymore. It had been intermittent hence the time taken to troubleshoot, but now it's a proper failure and it is one of the channels. So, I'd like to know, if anyone as experience of RAID failures, if I can source the exact model of my current RAID card, and swap it over, will it work immediately without any tweaking? And if I can't source the exact model, and need to swap for a new one (more than likely still Adaptec), how much of a headache will this be, what will be involved? Thanks... Daryl Edited 13 Mar 2012 by Daryl

[BobB 58]

Geez - have not had that problem before. I would expect that you would have to install a new card and set it up. I would also expect that you may have to delete everything off the drive connected to the failed port and let the system rebuild itself but not sure here. Bit fraught with danger I expect - I think I would contact an IT guy how knows RAID inside out and get him to do it - probably worth the money rather than stuffing up the good drive and losing all your stuff..

[Daryl 1]

The thought of having to build from scratch is my worst case scenario. I've managed to source the exact model of RAID card and have ordered today, so hopefully that'll go smoothly and I won't have to deal with any other issues. Changing a drive in a RAID setup is something I've done plenty of times, but this is the first time I've had to deal with the card itself. Thanks... Daryl

[ianbuckley 0]

For what it is worth, I have moved a RAID1 array from one card to another a couple of times and had no problems. Not even the same model (migration from ISA to PCI). I would still back up the data to an external drive before proceeding, just in case.

[Daryl 1]

Thanks Ian. Fortunately, the data isn't too important at this stage as the system is still under commissioning, but it's the thought of having to start from scratch that's killing me. It's running RSSQL and is reading information from an array stored on a ControlLogix system which in turn is receiving information from a SCADA system. Will be very tricky to setup again. I'll let folks know my experience when I receive and fit. thanks... Daryk