Mark,

Just use a =lot= of caution while proceeding. Walk into this procedure after doing a lot of due diligence in researching both systems/raid controllers. Depending on the vendor, and the raid cards, you may or may not be able to do this. A number of Dell servers have an option of importing a "foreign" raid configuration which is generally done within the RAID bios during boot, where it registers drives. I'd verify the Raid Bios of the gaining system, and the raid from the previous system. Research what you can find from the manufacturers.

Before proceeding, consider viewing/entering and examine the raid bios of both systems before any movement of drives for familiarity as well.

If you attempted this, you'd really want to make sure you labeled these drives very clearly as you removed them so you can put them back in the same order (or put them back in the original server if during the procedure you find you must go back).

Whatever you do, do not initialize the drives on the new server or you will lose all the data. I'd highly recommend knowing what Raid Controllers are in both systems. Are the servers from the same manufacturer? Even if it is the same manufacturer and similar Raid Controller, this still may or may not work, I'd recommend checking the manufacturer of the raid controller to see about importing a "foreign raid configuration".

That being said, the difference in raid controllers may thwart your attempt and "YMMV" may apply (Your Mileage May Vary). If you are going from one brand server to another, the raid controller in question may or may not cooperate. HP (hewlett packard) servers have some nice raid functions/capabilities, but they are certainly different than Dell for instance.

Now what kind of role are these servers performing as? If you already have "new" hardware, can you build a new edition of the server in question and increment the number and have a new IP? However, I suspect that it's likely the server you are speaking of fulfills a unique role and you wish to transfer it to newer hardware without having stand up a new server? While you might be able to transfer the raid, it is good to consider backup plans for a plan b or c.

Do you have VMware? If so, you can consider a "P to V" (physical to virtual) conversion of the server to VMware. However, based on a variety of unknown factors in your discussion thread here, that may prove a challenge as well.

Do you run netbackup or some other form of backup function/software on the original server? I'd highly recommend a full backup of the server (and know you have the ability to restore too) prior to proceeding!!