Promise TX2: replacing drives

[Toomas Aas]

Hello!

I checked the Promise website and searched Google, but didn't find much info.

I have a PC with ASUS P4B533-E motherboard, which has Promise TX2 (PDC20276)
integrated IDE RAID controller. It also has a standard Intel ICH4 IDE controller.

Currently the system is running on two 80 GB mirrored disks attached to Promise
controller's IDE ports. I would like to replace the 80 GB disks with 200 GB disks.
The OS is FreeBSD 4.9.

My current plan is this:

1. Attach one of the 200 GB disks to (currently unused) ICH4 port. Bring up the
system, partition the 200 GB disk, move data over from old partitions to new
partitions using dump/restore in single user mode. Make sure the new disk is set
bootable.

2. Remove the 80 GB disks and install the 200 GB disks - one partitioned, one blank -
to Promise IDE ports. Mirror the partitioned disk to blank disk.

The system where I have to do this is at a remote location so before I go there and
start mucking around with it I'd like to have as clear an idea as possible about what
I'm going to do. As I said, unfortunately I couldn't find much documentation, so I'd
like to ask you guys:

- what glaring errors does the plan described above have?
- has anyone done this kind of thing with this controller?
- how does the re-mirroring process actually work with new disks? Is it automatic or
do I need to go to BIOS and initiate it manually? How do I make sure that I mirror
the data from partitioned disk to blank disk and not vice versa?

Thanks in advance,

 

[Toomas Aas]

(e-mail address removed) (Toomas Aas) wrote in

I have a PC with ASUS P4B533-E motherboard, which has Promise TX2
(PDC20276) integrated IDE RAID controller. It also has a standard Intel
ICH4 IDE controller.

Currently the system is running on two 80 GB mirrored disks attached to
Promise controller's IDE ports. I would like to replace the 80 GB disks
with 200 GB disks. The OS is FreeBSD 4.9.

Just for the benefit of people reading the archives, I did manage to find the
necessary documentation, of all places, in the motherboard user manual. Here are the
steps for duplicating existing drive to new drive:

1. After connecting the new drives (one containing the data, one blank) to Promise
IDE ports, power up the system. The FastTrak BIOS should come up with a message 'No
array defined' and allow you to enter the array configuration utility by pressing
Ctrl+F.

2. Once in the utility, select option 1 - Auto Setup.

3. Navigate to the field 'Optimize array for' and set it to 'Secyrity' (yeah!).

4. Press Ctri+Y to save. The message appears, asking whether you want to duplicate
one disk to another. Answer Y.

5. The dialog opens where you can choose the source drive. Try to figure out which
drive is the one containing the data and press Ctrl+Y to start duplication.

6. Once the duplication completes, reboot the system and you should be done.

I hope it works as easy as it sounds...

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Just for the benefit of people reading the archives, I did
manage to find the necessary documentation, of all places,
in the motherboard user manual. Here are the steps for
duplicating existing drive to new drive:

1. After connecting the new drives (one containing the data,
one blank) to Promise IDE ports, power up the system.
The FastTrak BIOS should come up with a message 'No
array defined' and allow you to enter the array configura-
tion utility by pressing Ctrl+F.

2. Once in the utility, select option 1 - Auto Setup.

3. Navigate to the field 'Optimize array for' and set it to
'Secyrity' (yeah!).

4. Press Ctri+Y to save. The message appears, asking
whether you want to duplicate one disk to another.
Answer Y.

5. The dialog opens where you can choose the source
drive. Try to figure out which drive is the one containing
the data and press Ctrl+Y to start duplication.

6. Once the duplication completes, reboot the system and
you should be done.

I hope it works as easy as it sounds...

Please report back on your degree of success with this.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Toshi1873]

(e-mail address removed) (Toomas Aas) wrote in


Just for the benefit of people reading the archives, I did manage to find the
necessary documentation, of all places, in the motherboard user manual. Here are the
steps for duplicating existing drive to new drive:

1. After connecting the new drives (one containing the data, one blank) to Promise
IDE ports, power up the system. The FastTrak BIOS should come up with a message 'No
array defined' and allow you to enter the array configuration utility by pressing
Ctrl+F.

2. Once in the utility, select option 1 - Auto Setup.

3. Navigate to the field 'Optimize array for' and set it to 'Secyrity' (yeah!).

4. Press Ctri+Y to save. The message appears, asking whether you want to duplicate
one disk to another. Answer Y.

5. The dialog opens where you can choose the source drive. Try to figure out which
drive is the one containing the data and press Ctrl+Y to start duplication.

6. Once the duplication completes, reboot the system and you should be done.

I hope it works as easy as it sounds...

I'm curious as well... hope you have good backups (well,
I guess the 80GB drive you're pulling out of the system
counts). I'll be especially interested if, when you're
done, the TX2 sees it as an 80GB RAID or a 300GB RAID.

On a windows box, I just take advantage of the downtime
and restore everything from scratch anway.