RAID Arrays, Disassembling Computer ADVICE

[orionanomaly]

I have a machine with 2 hardware RAID cards running two RAID 10s full of SSDs.

I need to ship this computer over a long distance, and am concerned about leaving my harddrives with the case and other stuff in the box, and would rather transport them on my person.

But I am concerned, having been completely burned by this in the past, about removing the RAID cards with the harddrives, and plugging them back in again when I reassemble the machine at the destination.

I am concerned that the data will be lost, the RAIDs will be destroyed, the OS will not recognize them, and any other imaginable horror might befall them.

I could just leave them in the machine for shipping, but I have some minor data security concerns over that, as the drives aren't encrypted.

I have made backups, but of course I would prefer if the machine could simply be booted back to original at the destination.

Does anyone with RAID hardware knowledge have any advice for me?

Thanks!

 

[USAFRet]

Power down
Disconnect
Transport
Connect exactly as it was before
Power up.

I can't imagine anything bad will happen if it is never turned on in the interim.
Of course have a backup in case of any weirdness. FEDEX may lose it or drop it.

 

[orionanomaly]

Ok, I mean that was my basic reasoning as well - I believe what happened last time though was the SSDs got disconnected from the SATA cables running to the RAID card, and were subsequently put back in a different order.

I had thought the RAID hardware would be smart enough to ID the drives by serial number rather than position on the SATA splitter cable, but I don't believe that was the case.

Presumably if I make sure THAT doesn't happen - there should be no issues?

 

[USAFRet]

Ok, I mean that was my basic reasoning as well - I believe what happened last time though was the SSDs got disconnected from the SATA cables running to the RAID card, and were subsequently put back in a different order.

I had thought the RAID hardware would be smart enough to ID the drives by serial number rather than position on the SATA splitter cable, but I don't believe that was the case.

Presumably if I make sure THAT doesn't happen - there should be no issues?

Plugged in exactly the same way, I can't imagine any issues.

Test it:
Power down
Unplug one
Wait 30 seconds
Plug it back in on the same port
Power up.

All that's missing there is the transport step instead of "wait 30 seconds" in the middle.

 

[ss202sl]

Documentation is key. As long as you have good documentation that shows which drive is plugged in to what port on the raid controller, you should be able to re-connect it correctly.

 

[popatim]

I would suggest you remove the cpu cooler also, esp if its a top-heavy tower cooler.

 

[orionanomaly]

Ok, I will do all of the above. Thank you to all posters. I use liquid cooling actually for CPU so I have two valves which I can just seal off, though I have to drain the system itself (I leave some coolant in the tube as the auto-seal valves are difficult to drain) of course before shipping.

 

[popatim]

good idea. You want to do everything you can to prepare your system for when ups/fedx toss the box into the back of their trucks