Replacing an LSI raid card with a pre-configured raid array

Newer LSI raid cards (depending on their current firmware version it seems) will auto-import raid configurations from previous raid cards. However on older cards you have to import the disks ‘foreign’ configuration. In order to check if your raid array was automatically imported by your new raid card you can run the following command:

$ MegaCli64 -ldinfo -l0 -a0

Adapter 0 — Virtual Drive Information:
Adapter 0: No Virtual Drive Configured.
Exit Code: 0x00

In the above example we can see that no virtual drive (raid array) was detected. We can further see the problem by looking at the disks attached to the raid card:

$ MegaCli64 -pdlist -a0

— and each ones output has the line:

Foreign State: Foreign

We can also see that there is a foreign raid configuration detected by the raid controller:

$ MegaCli64 -cfgforeign -scan -a0

There are 1 foreign configuration(s) on controller 0.

Exit Code: 0x00

In order to import the foreign raid configuration and activate the raid array with the new raid controller:

$ MegaCli64 -cfgforeign -import -a0

After the import we can now see the active virtual drive (raid array):

$ MegaCli64 -ldinfo -l0 -a0

Adapter 0 — Virtual Drive Information:
Virtual Drive: 0 (Target Id: 0)
Name :
RAID Level : Primary-5, Secondary-0, RAID Level Qualifier-3
Size : 1.361 TB
Sector Size : 512
Is VD emulated : No
Parity Size : 464.729 GB
State : Optimal
Strip Size : 64 KB
Number Of Drives : 4
Span Depth : 1
Default Cache Policy: WriteBack, ReadAheadNone, Cached, No Write Cache if Bad BBU
Current Cache Policy: WriteBack, ReadAheadNone, Cached, No Write Cache if Bad BBU
Default Access Policy: Read/Write
Current Access Policy: Read/Write
Disk Cache Policy : Disk’s Default
Encryption Type : None
Is VD Cached: No