If the serveraid7k cards are LSI and not Adaptec based (I think they are) you should just be able to plug in a new adapter and import the foreign configuration. You do have a good backup, yes? Switching to write-through has already happened (unless you specified WriteBackModeEvenWithNoBBU - not the default) - these (LSI) cards by default only WB when "safe". If WT, RAID10 much better perf. BUT you just can't migrate from R5 to R10 non-destructively. - Michael from Kitchener Original Message From: symack Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2014 16:04 To: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Got a call at 4am - RAID Gurus Please Read Server down..... Got to colo at 4:39 and an old IBM X346 node with Serveraid-7k has failed. Opened it up to find a swollen cache battery that has bent the card in three different axis. Separated the battery. (i) Inspect card and plug back in, (ii) reboot, and got (code 2807) Not functioning.... Return to (i) x3 got same result. Dusted her off and let it sit for a while plugged in, rebooted to see if I can get her to write-through mode, disks start spinning. Horay. Plan of action, (and the reason for my post): * Can I change from an active (ie, disks with data) raid 5 to raid 10. There are 4 drives in the unit, and I have two on the shelf that I can plug in. * If so, will I have less of performance impact with RAID 10 + write-thru then RAID 5 + write through * When the new raid card comes in, can I just plug it in without loosing my data? I would: i) RAID 10 ii) Write-thru iii) Replace card The new card is probably coming with a bad battery that would put us kind of in square one. New batteries are 200+ if I can find them. Best case scenario is move it over to RAID 10+Write-thru, and feel less of the performance pinch. Given I can move from RAID 5 to RAID 10 without loosing data. How long to anticipate downtime for this process? Is there heavy sector re-arranging happening here? And the same for write-thru, is it done quick? I'm going to go lay down just for a little white. Thanks in Advance, Nick from Toronto.