Re: how to replacie 2778 disk controler with 2780 controller in 5094

Short answer : sort of. When you power off the partition you are not powering off the equipment! In order to replace the 2778 you'll have to go through the proper procedures for removing then adding a card to the 5094. (too detailed of a procedure to document here). I would stop RAID first swap the controllers and recreate your raid set again. You'll need at least one full system save (I prefer two) first!

As to adding the 70GB drives, yes you can drain the old drives but you cannot use that technique with the load source drive. You'll have to copy that to a new drive that is not configured.

While it sound very straightforward, there are dozens of things that can go wrong if you don't know your hardware procedures. I suggest you get someone who has the certifications and experience to do it for you, or just as well, pay the IBM CE to do it for you.

A better solution: Do you have room for another IOP? it would be much better to put an IOP in along with the new 2780 and leave the old drives and raid card alone. Copy the load source to a non-configured drive, start raid, add the balance of the drives to the system. Change your partition profile to use the new raid card for load source and IPL. Now start draining the old drives onto the new ones. When that's done you can IPL to DST, remove the old drives from the configuration, and then physically remove them. Way safer!

Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects


On 11/1/2011 5:03 PM, Glenn Birnbaum wrote:

Quick question. We're on a Model 550 (Power 5) running V5R4 on current CUM and PTF groups. Disks and disk controller are in a 5094.

Can we simply power off an LPAR, pull the existing 2778 disk controller and replace in the same slot with a newer 2780 controller, and then just power back up. We have older disk (6718 and 6719) under this 2778 . We hope to replace the 2778 with a 2780 and then create a new RAID 5 set of 70GB drives, then drain and remove the older 6718 and 6719 disk drives.

If simply swapping the disk controllers won't work, then how do you go about the upgrade we're trying to do?

Thanks,
Glenn Birnbaum
REI