BCM 400 Release 4.0 Redundant Hard Drive Replacement problem

[nnctechdotcom]

I am attempting to replace a failed (Slave) hard drive on a redundant system. I am doing it exactly as the manuals instruct and I am positive that I identifying the correct drive of the two. The problem is that when the system comes back up (and the system indeed comes back up with both PRI's working and database in tact of course), the lights continually flash and I have no Voicemail and no LAN access- just like symptoms of a bad BFT. And yes, I am waiting long enough for it to come back up- almost two hours of flashing lights. When putting the original failed slave drive back in, my Voicemail and LAN access returns, so I know I have a good BFT. Any thoughts before I blame it on this replacement drive and try another drive?

 

[snd1234]

Is it a Nortel approved replacement?

Not saying it needs to be, just curious.

Since it's a spare, you might try just toally wiping it out and putting it in and allowing the system to rebuild off the primary.

 

[nnctechdotcom]

I guess I should have mentioned that it is indeed a Nortel approved hard drive and by definition, it has to be a BLANK drive for the procedure is that the Master builds this blank drive accordingly. Another thing that I failed to mention is that the book states that it may take up to 3 hours for this blank drive to complete getting copied (thinking that vmail service might have been stopped as to not allow any messages to be left in the copying process) so I purposely left it running overnight (8 plus hours), but no luck- still flashing lights and no LAN access, no vmail. I even hard rebooted after these 8 hours and everything came back up, but not the LAN access or vmail.

 

[snd1234]

I have screwed around with the RAID feature on the BCM400s. I recall that the HD lights flashed for quite a while how I did have EM access to the system while this was going on.

Are you sure it is blank? Do you have IDE to USB adapter you can use to attach the drive to a PC and check. I would do that.

 

[telcodog]

I'm willing to bet the problem is with the raid board itself, not the drive. I've seen this happen many times in the 400s. If you have the equipment, try installing that failed drive in another 400 and see if it will boot. just watch the prcess with a terminal connected directly to it.