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I have four DL380-G5 servers.
one is currently running RH5.2 using a RAID1 drive set.
I want to replicate the first server to the other three.
I am thinking I can yank one of the drives from the first server and replace with a new drive and let the RAID1 rebuild.
My question is, If I insert the pulled drive into a second server, boot up and then add a drive, will it rebuild into a second machine with me just having to change the name and IP?

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  • +1 very good question! I would of though answer is yes... but very complicated as the raid needs to be initialised first on the new server and it may not rebuild from a foreign array / may think that the new disk is the one with the error as serial info will not line up... but I have never tried it and don't know! Jul 30, 2010 at 13:14
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    possible but dont just pull the disk out of the running machine as you need consistent data on both disks Jul 30, 2010 at 13:15
  • good thoughts... I was planning on shutting the system down before removing one of the drives. then when the system comes up it will just not find the paired drive and complain for a replacement.
    – calikoala
    Jul 30, 2010 at 13:20

2 Answers 2

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Yes, I've done exactly this on the same hardware. (Trying the same thing on some Dell blades failed miserably, FWIW.) We usually run sysprep before shutting down the first machine (running Windows Server 2003), but since they're hardware-identical, I don't think it's essential.

When you move the drive from one server to another, be sure to insert it into the same drive slot that it occupied in the first machine. And as you said in your question, boot the new server with only the one disk installed, and then insert the second disk after it's booted. That way the RAID controller will know which to use as the "good" disk and will rebuild onto the second disk.

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  • thanks. I was fairly sure this would work. I didn't think about the drive slot issue.
    – calikoala
    Jul 30, 2010 at 13:16
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    Skipping sysprep will result in a duplicate SID. Some disagree as to whether this is a big deal, but it may cause problems with WSUS etc. You might as well just do it.
    – Skyhawk
    Jul 30, 2010 at 16:04
  • machine sid duplication is not that big a deal but there is a while host of other reasons to sysprep blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2009/11/03/…
    – Jim B
    Feb 17, 2011 at 4:37
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I've done this exact thing on g-4 servers a few years back, as Coneslayer mentioned it helps to put the clone drive in the same slot on the other side (although recall that it worked regardless of drive however sometimes you had to reboot it a few times to get it to realize that it's part of a mirror set) I also start by configuring the raid array on the destination system first. I'm not sure that it's required, but my thinking was that the raid controller needed to understand that it should be looking for a mirror set participant first.

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