Hello,
I am not sure exactly what you are trying to accomplish. When you ask about replacing the whole unit that implies you have an issue which you are trying to solve by replacing. Yet you ask the question about the configuration, which seems to imply you are trying to copy the configuration to a second system.
If you replace one controller at a time, the new controller will copy all of the old configuration. Theoretically you can then take those two new controllers and place in a new system. However, doing the configuration in this manner means you will have the same IP addresses for the management controllers along with the same WWN for the host ports. If both arrays have the same configuration you might have a conflict on your SAN.
Additionally, if your original MSA 2050 has an issue, then swapping in controllers might copy whatever issue exists on the original array to the new controllers. This might not solve your issue. If you are more concerned about the configuration so that you have a second array configured the same as your first array there are steps you can take to copy the key configuration details and then set up your new array with those configuration details.
Hopefully, this helps. Please detail out additional information if more assistance is needed. Additionally, your system should still be under warranty. This means you could get HPE Support for further assistance.
Cheers,
Shawn
I work for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The comments in this post are my own and do not represent an official reply from HPE. No warranty or guarantees of any kind are expressed in my reply.