Importing or Clearing a Foreign Configuration

A foreign configuration is a storage configuration that already exists on a replacement set of drives that you install in a computer system.

In addition, if one or more drives are removed from a configuration, by a cable pull or drive removal, for example, the configuration on those drives is considered a foreign configuration by the RAID controller.

The BIOS CU allows you to import the foreign configuration to the RAID controller, or to clear the configuration so you can create a new configuration using these drives.

Note: When you create a new configuration, the WebBIOS CU shows only the unconfigured drives. Drives that have existing configurations, including foreign configurations, will not appear. To use drives with existing configurations, you must first clear the configuration on those drives.

If WebBIOS CU detects a foreign configuration, the import screen appears, as shown in Figure 3.41.

Figure 3.41 Foreign Configuration Import Screen

The GUID (Global Unique Identifier) entries on the drop-down list are OEM names and will vary from one installation to another.

Click Preview if you want to preview the foreign configuration.

The preview screen appears, as shown in Figure 3.42.

Click Clear if you want to clear the configuration and reuse the drives for another virtual drive.

Click Cancel to cancel the importation or preview of the configuration.

Figure 3.42 Foreign Configuration Preview Screen

The right panel shows the virtual drive properties of the foreign configuration. In this example, there is a RAID 1 virtual drive with 1,000 Mbytes. The left panel shows the drives that comprise the foreign configuration.

Click Import to import this foreign configuration and use it on this controller.

Click Cancel to clear the configuration and reuse the drives for another virtual drive.

3.7.3.1 Foreign Configurations in Cable Pull and Drive Removal Scenarios

If one or more drives are removed from a configuration, by a cable pull or drive removal, for example, the configuration on those drives is considered a foreign configuration by the RAID controller.

Use the Foreign Configuration Preview screen to import or clear the foreign configuration in each case. The import procedure and clear procedure are described in Section 3.7.3, “Importing or Clearing a Foreign Configuration.”

The following scenarios can occur with cable pulls or drive removals.

Note: If you want to import the foreign configuration in any of the following scenarios, you should have all of the drives in the enclosure before you perform the import operation.

1. Scenario #1: If all of the drives in a configuration are removed and re-inserted, the controller considers the drives to have foreign configurations.

Import or clear the foreign configuration. If you select Import, automatic rebuilds will occur in redundant virtual drives.

Note: Start a consistency check immediately after the rebuild is complete to ensure data integrity for the virtual drives.

See Section 3.7.1, “Running a Consistency Check,” for more information about checking data consistency.

2. Scenario #2: If some of the drives in a configuration are removed and re-inserted, the controller considers the drives to have foreign configurations.

Import or clear the foreign configuration. If you select Import, automatic rebuilds will occur in redundant virtual drives.

Note: Start a consistency check immediately after the rebuild is complete to ensure data integrity for the virtual drives.

See Section 3.7.1, “Running a Consistency Check,” for more information about checking data consistency.

3. Scenario #3: If all of the drives in a virtual drive are removed, but at different times, and re-inserted, the controller considers the drives to have foreign configurations.

Import or clear the foreign configuration. If you select Import, all drives that were pulled before the virtual drive became offline will be imported and then automatically rebuilt. Automatic rebuilds will occur in redundant virtual drives.

4. If the drives in a non-redundant virtual drive are removed, the controller considers the drives to have foreign configurations.

Import or clear the foreign configuration. No rebuilds will occur after the import operation because there is no redundant data to rebuild the drives with.

3.7.3.2 Importing Foreign Configurations from Integrated RAID to MegaRAID

The LSI Integrated RAID solution simplifies the configuration options and provides firmware support in its host controllers. LSI offers two types of Integrated RAID (IR): Integrated Mirroring (IM) and Integrated Striping (IS).

You can import an IM or IS RAID configuration from an IR system into a MegaRAID system. The MegaRAID system treats the IR configuration as a foreign configuration. You can import or clear the IR configuration.

Note: For more information about Integrated RAID, refer to the Integrated RAID for SAS User’s Guide. You can find this document on the LSI web site at:

http://www.lsi.com/cm/DownloadSearch.do.

3.7.3.3 Troubleshooting Information

An IR virtual drive can have either 64 Mbytes or 512 Mbytes available for metadata at the end of the drive. This data is in LSI Data Format (LDF).

MegaRAID virtual drives have 512 Mbytes for metadata at the end of the drive in the Disk Data format (DDF).

To import an IR virtual drive into MegaRAID, the IR virtual drive must have 512 Mbytes in the metadata, which is the same amount of megadata as in a MegaRAID virtual drive. If the IR virtual drive has only 64 Mbytes when you attempt to import it into MegaRAID, the import will fail because the last 448 Mbytes of your data will be overwritten and the data lost.

If your IR virtual drive has only 64 Mbytes for metadata at the end of the drive, you cannot import the virtual drive into MegaRAID. You need to use another upgrade method, such as backup/restore to the upgraded virtual drive type.

In order to import an IR virtual drive into a MegaRAID system, use the Foreign Configuration Preview screen to import or clear the foreign configuration. The import procedure and the clear procedure are described in Section 3.7.3, “Importing or Clearing a Foreign Configuration.”