Replacing controller & disks

[Guest peeters.tom@gmail.com]

Hi,

 

I've got a critical problem on a sbs2k3 server: Windows logbook shows

alot

of aarich HD errors and already needed to repair the exchange mailbox

store

twice. Therefore I want to replace the disks, but since the controller

only

supports SATA disks and I want to replace them with SAS disks I need

to

install a new controller aswell. Has anyone every had experience with

this?

 

How I would do it...

 

1. Create a full backup using ntbackup

2. Installing a new controller & 4 new SAS disks with RAID5 + HS

3. Disabling the onboard controller

4. Installing sbs2k3 & all updates

5. Performing a full recover using ntbackup I created in step 1

 

It's very important to get the server to its original state because

it's running software which I'm unable to re-install.

 

Advice very appreciated... :)

[Guest Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Re: Replacing controller & disks

 

peeters.tom@gmail.com wrote:

> Hi,

>

> I've got a critical problem on a sbs2k3 server: Windows logbook shows

> alot

> of aarich HD errors and already needed to repair the exchange mailbox

> store

> twice. Therefore I want to replace the disks, but since the controller

> only

> supports SATA disks and I want to replace them with SAS disks I need

> to

> install a new controller aswell. Has anyone every had experience with

> this?

>

> How I would do it...

>

> 1. Create a full backup using ntbackup

> 2. Installing a new controller & 4 new SAS disks with RAID5 + HS

> 3. Disabling the onboard controller

> 4. Installing sbs2k3 & all updates

> 5. Performing a full recover using ntbackup I created in step 1

 

No, I don't think this will work - you're restoring to different hardware. A

bare metal restore to new hardware is a huge gamble and won't work well with

NTBackup.

>

> It's very important to get the server to its original state because

> it's running software which I'm unable to re-install.

 

Why not?

>

> Advice very appreciated... :)

 

I'd suggest that you:

 

a) first post in microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs for *all* SBS issues,

as your options are inevitably different in SBS than in the 'regular'

products

 

b) consider a "swing migration" from this server to another (even if the

other is an interim box) ...http://www.sbsmigration.com

 

c) ....then rebuild your existing server with the new controller & drives,

and redo the swing migration back to your original hardware.

 

You will still need to reinstall your software, however.

 

Alternatively, you could try something like Acronis TrueImage Server and

their associated Universal Restore, but if I were you I'd try out a test

restore to an entirely different box first, just in case.