Editing RAID Cards (section)

== Notes ==

Unlike the Adaptec RAID cards, the LSI cards store two copies of the configuration meta-data.  Once copy is in NVRAM on the cards itself, the other copy is on the disks.  If there is configuration data in NVRAM it will be used, even if the data on the disks is different.

What all this means is that if a card ever needs to be swapped out, you have to make sure the NVRAM is cleared before installing the new card.  The clear config option in the menus doesn’t work.  In order to clear the NVRAM choose new config and then don’t create any arrays.  Then save the new config. Once the config is cleared you can install the card in an existing system.  Once installed, you have to go to the view/add config menu and make sure the arrays are there, then save the config.

Another thing to be aware of is that once you create an array, there’s no way to delete it without doing an entirely new config.  You can get around this by taking note of the current config, then do a new config with only the arrays you want, and save the config.  DO NOT initialize the arrays after saving the new config or you’ll lose all the data on that array. 

I did something weird where I cleared the config, then re-created the config, all without rebooting, and when I exited after re-creating, the system was fine (despite giving lots of errors after the config was cleared).

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