Using a programmed SSD drive on a different chassis

[mszodiac]

Hi Everyone,

So we have a 3300 MXeIII which we think has a flaky controller board.  My question is, can I take the hard drive from this system, and use it on a new system/chassis?

I know I have to clear the ARID from AMC, retrieve the licenses on the new system.  I'm just not sure if the sys ID is "stamped" on the hard drive similar to the SX2000.

Thanks.

[acejavelin]

Sure, you can just swap the drive and SYSID chip (the thing that looks like a battery on the mainboard, it is actually the SYSID chip) into a new chassis and just go, no license changes are needed... if you don't swap the SYSID chip, you will need to relicense through AMC.

[mszodiac]

Thanks acejavelin!

It sounds too simple though.

Will let you know how it turns out for me.

[johnp]

I would make sure the replacement had the correct ip info before the swap

[acejavelin]

I would make sure the replacement had the correct ip info before the swap

True, the IP does stay with chassis... It can be set in VX Works before fully booting.

In a stand-alone system this shouldn't really effect anything, you could just change it later. In a networked system it could pose more of a "problem", potentially at least.

[mszodiac]

Thanks everyone.  Yes, I used VX work to program the new chassis with the same IP address of the faulty chassis.

Will be replacing units this Saturday.

[mszodiac]

Unfortunately, swapping the i-button, and the hard drive did not work for me.  After waiting 15 minutes, there was no activity on the RS232, and I couldn't even ping the IP address despite having activity on the LAN port.  There was red alarm on the front panel.

As soon as we installed the original i-button, and the hard drive, we were able to get ESM access, and RS232 activity.

Did I need to do an extra step?

[acejavelin]

Unfortunately, swapping the i-button, and the hard drive did not work for me.  After waiting 15 minutes, there was no activity on the RS232, and I couldn't even ping the IP address despite having activity on the LAN port.  There was red alarm on the front panel.

As soon as we installed the original i-button, and the hard drive, we were able to get ESM access, and RS232 activity.

Did I need to do an extra step?

No, I have literally done this dozens of times... We just did it with a CX II last week that wouldn't initialize any AMB installed. As long as the it's like for like (MXe III for MXe III) it should just work. I would have opened the cabinet and reseated everything, you should have gotten output from the RS-232 even if there was no hard drive or SYSID chip installed at all.

It is possible if your chassis was older, significantly older, that the firmware didn't recognize the SSD until it was updated... maybe... just playing devil's advocate here.

[mszodiac]

That's what surprised me.  Not even activity on the RS232 port.   Even the instruction on the handbook to replace the i-button is straight forward.  The chassis is an MXeIII.  Yes, we opened the system again and made sure the i-button was seated correctly, still no activity.

Since it's a maintenance window, we couldn't really troubleshoot as long as we want.