Swapping HBA, like for like?

[BlueMagician]

Dear all,

I'm currently running a circa 10 month old install of FreeNAS 9 which uses the P16 HBA driver, with a crossflashed Dell H200 un IT mode, using P16 firmware.

All is working well, but I want to update FreeNAS to the latest version - which I know requires my HBA to be running P20 firmware.

Now...

I have a second spare H200, which I've already crossflashed to IT mode using P20 firmware.

My production (in service HBA) and my 'spare' are both exactly the same brand and model. One may have been manufactured more recently than the other - but to my eye - they are identical cards.

So, my question is: to avoid the risk of my 'in service' card failing a firmware update, can I just shutdown FreeNAS, and physically swap the cards over?

My hope is that FreeNAS won't have a clue that the hardware has changed, but will be happy that P20 is now present and I can then upgrade FreeNAS..

My fear is that FreeNAS will see the new card as different in some way - perhaps through the SAS address ID - and in turn go mental and trash my pool etc etc.

Do I need to faff with exporting/detaching/reattaching my pool.. or can I just get on with it?

Finally, if an HBA switch is safe - what's best to do first.. Update FreeNAS before firmware, or switch cards before updating FreeNAS.


TLDR; Will FreeNAS care if I switch a like/like HBA out under it's nose, with differing SAS addresses. Firmware up to P20 first, or driver up to P20 first?


Thank you all sincerely in advance, sorry for rambling!

Simon.

 

[jgreco]

Yup. Swap away. This isn't Windows, and FreeBSD doesn't care if your disks are attached to the SATA mainboard ports, or get moved to an HBA, or get swapped around, or controllers get shuffled, or upgraded, or sidegraded, or downgraded, etc.

Swapping is how I prefer to do it, since rollback in the event of a failure is a really nice quality.

 

[BlueMagician]

Thanks for the swift reply, it is very much appreciated.

Just to close the thread - all went according to plan.

I updated to 9.3.1-Stable through the GUI which of course flagged a yellow alert due to firmware mismatch. So I then shutdown and switched to the alternate H200 with the P20-IT firmware...

It all seems to be running fine so far, with green alerts running P20.

I shall now reflash my original H200 to P20 in my test rig - and keep it stashed away for emergencies, or for when I need more ports for the second set of six WD Red's I'll never afford!

Thanks again, regards,
Simon.