What happens if a battery-backed RAID controller built into a motherboard fails?

The scenario involves a motherboard with a battery-backed RAID controller, which plays a critical role in maintaining array configuration information during power outages or hardware failures. If the RAID controller fails, typically, the battery is designed to retain the array configuration information temporarily, allowing it to be restored when the controller is replaced or repaired.

This is important for maintaining the integrity of the RAID setup, as the configuration information includes details about how the drives are organized and how data is distributed across them. Therefore, while the RAID controller itself may fail, the battery can indeed provide enough power to save the array information, ensuring that data and configurations are preserved during the transition to a new controller.

In contrast, loss of the array configuration information typically occurs if there is no battery backup or if the battery is depleted, which can lead to challenges in reconstructing the RAID configuration if the controller fails. Understanding how a battery-backed RAID controller functions helps in planning for redundancy and data recovery strategies in a server environment.