"How easy would it be to replace the SAS5/i card with a PERC/6 RAID controller?" This is as easy as swapping the cards.  A new backplane or cable would not be needed (although in order to use more than 4 disks, you would need a second controller-to-backplane cable).  It sound like you aren't too worried about the data on the disks, so this next point should not be important, but because the SAS 5/i is non-RAID and the PERC is neither compatible with nor capable of non-RAID, you cannot directly migrate any data from the SAS 5/i to the PERC - a backup/restore would be necessary. Interposers are not necessary if running all SATA, but it also should not matter if they are on or off.
Hi We've currently got 2 PE2950 Servers with SAS5/i cars fitted, which we're having a few issues with.  Under high I/O tasks (specifically writing) they keep dropping discs from the controller, listing the issue as: SAS port report: SAS wide port 2 lost link on PHY 2.: Controller 0 (SAS5i) The drive then hangs with the access light on until a power cycle, or remove/reinsert event.  This is causing some serious grief while trying to configure these machines in there new role, after buying 3 new R510's to replace them. The drives fitted to the PE2950 are all identical - ST500DM002-1BD142 KC45 I've tried swapping drives around, fitting with and without interposer cards, resetting settings back to factory defaults, but to no avail.  From looking online, it appears I'm not the only one suffering from this issue with this card, so thinking of trying something a bit more extreme. How easy would it be to replace the SAS5/i card with a PERC/6 RAID controller?  Is it just a case of swapping cards, or would I also need to replace the backplane which is fitted?  Will I also need to use interposer cards for the PERC/6 card to operate properly, or can I leave them all in without interposers so connected directly as SATA drives? OS in use is Ubuntu 12.04, and the use of the system is a dual-redundant Zimbra mail server on drbd.  Thanks Paul
PE2950 & SAS5/i Stability & Upgrade Query