move from Dell Perc 6i to H700

Issues related to hardware problems
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gary20783
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move from Dell Perc 6i to H700

Post by gary20783 » 2021/04/20 19:06:58

Hello,

I'm trying to figure out if this is possible as my boot drive is currently on the 6i. I know that I can import the drive configuration to the H700.

What needs to be done from the Centos side? I have room to have both controllers installed.

Regards,
Gary

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TrevorH
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Re: move from Dell Perc 6i to H700

Post by TrevorH » 2021/04/20 19:24:34

Are you able to post the lspci -nn | grep -i raid info for both controllers?
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

gary20783
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Re: move from Dell Perc 6i to H700

Post by gary20783 » 2021/04/20 19:29:37

I have not acquired the card yet. I'm trying to understand what needs to happen to make a decision.

My only interest is to be able to use bigger drives and take advantage of 6gbs.

If I can do a straight swap, or install the card with a drive attached so that the right drivers get loaded, then this is relatively simple. If I have to do a full re-install, then I need to think about it.

gary20783
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Re: move from Dell Perc 6i to H700

Post by gary20783 » 2021/04/22 20:27:52

I find it interesting that no one has done this before. I have never thought of myself as a trailblazer.

Perhaps my question is vague. A better wording might be, do any of the Centos 7 boot files need to be rebuilt? If so, which ones?

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TrevorH
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Re: move from Dell Perc 6i to H700

Post by TrevorH » 2021/04/22 21:09:54

Well, that's what the question about the lspci output was for. With the PCI vendor:device id pair, you can ask the system which module supports the controller and find out whether it is the same one - in which case no change is required - or a different module, in which case you need to rebuild the initramfs file for the current kernel and tell it to include the module for the new controller. For example, on a newer system with an H730 I get

Code: Select all

$ lspci -nn | grep -i raid
01:00.0 RAID bus controller [0104]: Broadcom / LSI MegaRAID SAS-3 3108 [Invader] [1000:005d] (rev 02)
$ grep -i 1000 /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/modules.* | grep -i 005d
/lib/modules/3.10.0-1160.21.1.el7.x86_64/modules.alias:alias pci:v00001000d0000005Dsv*sd*bc*sc*i* megaraid_sas
So my controller is supported by the megaraid_sas module. If the same module supports both controllers then you can just swap them over (see below about what else you need to do first)

Or you can boot the rescue kernel that's listed on the grub menu. That one includes all drivers for all hardware in its initramfs file and _should_ boot on anything (if it's supported at all). Once booted with that you can either yum reinstall the current kernel by full version number - e.g. yum reinstall kernel-3.10.0-1160.24.1.el7.x86_64 - or you can rebuild the initramfs with dracut -f --kver 3.10.0-1160.24.1.el7.x86_64 or even just yum update if you don't have the latest one installed already. All of those will create a new initramfs file tailored for the hardware on which the command is run.

Also, if you google for "perc 6i to h700" you can find posts on the Dell site telling you about what you need to do at the hardware level before you can even boot up - i.e. you need to import foreign configuration.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

gary20783
Posts: 17
Joined: 2020/09/15 23:30:15

Re: move from Dell Perc 6i to H700

Post by gary20783 » 2021/04/22 21:58:00

Thank you TrevorH.

Your last update answers my question about the Centos side, and I wish it had been your first update.

The process is straight-forward and simple. :-) I will now purchase an H700.

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jlehtone
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Re: move from Dell Perc 6i to H700

Post by jlehtone » 2021/04/23 07:11:40

https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all- ... _en-us.pdf writes:
PERC H310/H710/H710P/H810, PERC H700/H800 cards and both the PERC 5 and PERC 6 family of controllers use the same driver

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