Drive Failure in RAID array. It's my 1st Dell... Help?!?

[ptlinva]

I've got a my first Dell. It is a PowerEdge 6300. My other servers have all been Compaq's 1850s and 3000s.

I believe my Dell has had a drive failure. The yellow light (below the power light) is blinking. Also when booting, the BIOS reports that the array (which consists of 4x18 gig drives in RAID5 configuration) is in CRITICAL state.

The lights on the drives all look normal except for the 1st one which doesn't show the activity that the others do after booting. During bootup, it blinks and looks just fine like the other drives.

Assuming that this is the bad drive, can I do a hotswap replace like I do with my Compaqs? Should I do a shutdown and swap the drive first? Is there a way to verify which drive is the bad one before pulling it out? I went into the PERC's bios (control/a) and it saw all the drives just fine.

Also, since I built this machine as 4x18 gigs in a raid 5 array, is there an easy way to upgrade this array to include an online spare as a backup in case of a future drive failure? I'm purchasing 2x18 gigs - one for the failed drive and one for an online spare if I can figure out how to upgrade the array.

Thanks in advance for your time and consideration. I really do appreciate it.

Paul Laudenslager
paul@virginia.com

 

[theScien]

You may have to try all drives on a seperate machine to determine which one failed.

Always shutdown if you can before un-pluging a drive even if it's hot-swapable.

Check your warranty, if out of date a 18GB drive shouldn't be that expenssive.

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[ptlinva]

Thank you so kindly for taking time to reply.

1. So I'm assuming that by shutting down, replacing the drive, that the PERC controller will automatically rebuild the replaced drive when the machine is powered backup?

2. How can I add an online spare to this array without destroying the current RAID configuration and loosing any data?

Thanks again for taking the time to reply. I know that we all never have enough time anymore so I'm very appreciative that you took the time to reply to my dilemma.

Your friend in Virginia,
Paul Laudenslager
paul@virginia.com

 

[polymath5]

I recommend you call Dell tech support. They can walk you through it.

If you are using Perc controllers you can add a hot swap without huting your data. You should be able to use FAST or Array Manager to determine which drive failed, and to set your new drive as the hot swap.

I agree with thescien's post above, power down the server when switching drives. On boot up it should start the restriping process. Put in the hotswap after your array is rebuilt.

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Mens et Manus
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[bfralia]

You can do a hot swap or shut down and swap. Shutting down is always cool if you can get away with. I've got several 6300's and have hotswapped. Both in a test configuration to see what would happen live. On the newer 6300's you may have to use Array Manager to start the rebuild. The older raid cards without the battery usually rebuild automatically.

Please do back up your drives before changing, just to protect yourself. You need to do that whether you hot swap or cold swap.