Media Server - Moving RAID 1 Array and Controller to new system?

[CeePeeBee]

Hi all,

 

Not strictly a "server" piece of hardware, but the utilisation of these PC's is with a server function so, here goes.

 

Long story short, I have an old machine running a Q9550 on an old P5Q-PRO board. Within that system, I'm running a few pieces of software (Subsonic, Plex, etc) to server up media for my household. I have 2 x 6TB WD Reds connected to a JMicron JMB36X RAID Controller (in RAID 1). Not the best setup but good enough for the 5-10 devices I stream to at a max of 1080p.

 

However my Q9550 is starting to creak a little despite a few upgrades to the OS, and I have an old I7 machine I had a sitting gathering dust, that I'd like to migrate to for the same use.

 

My question is can I lift and shift the RAID controller form my old machine, to my new one, without having to rebuild the array/losing data?

 

For reference, both systems are running Windows 10 for now.

[HenrySalayne]

As RAID 1 is simple mirroring there shouldn't be any trouble even without the controller.

[Jarsky]

47 minutes ago, CeePeeBee said:

My question is can I lift and shift the RAID controller form my old machine, to my new one, without having to rebuild the array/losing data?

Is it actually a standalone controller? I remember many of those pre "Core" platforms with the Nvidia chipsets utilized JMicron controllers onboard. 

Shouldn't be any trouble moving a card and its drives though. 

[CeePeeBee]

Hi both, 

 

Just to confirm, yes it';s a PCI RAID controller I added in a while back with SATA ports connected to the drives in question.

 

So, if I life that controller card, and the drives, into this new machine it should just "spring" into life and not want to rebuild 6TB of an array, sync it, and wipe the data? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, CeePeeBee said:

Hi both, 

 

Just to confirm, yes it';s a PCI RAID controller I added in a while back with SATA ports connected to the drives in question.

 

So, if I life that controller card, and the drives, into this new machine it should just "spring" into life and not want to rebuild 6TB of an array, sync it, and wipe the data? 

You should just be able to move the drives and the controller and get access to your data.

 

But make a backup first, stuff can go wrong in this process.

[CeePeeBee]

Just FYI all worked smoothly. When I thought about it logically, it's just the controller that governs what the OS sees....so thanks for confirming all!

[CeePeeBee]

One quick update - the migration worked, however in the process one of my WD Reds has decided to die! Gives me an excuse to purchase some Toshy N300s instead