MiVB MXE III 8.0 PR3 Redundant drive dead 1

[Crowtalks]

I discovered one of our 250g HDD is bad in the SATA RAID (#2).

Four or five years ago I replaced one of them and at the time I was thinking that Mitel said the model numbers of the drives have to match, etc, so we ordered a matching model and I replaced the defective drive. I don't recall the particulars, like whether it auto mirrored, etc.

Looking about on forums it seems that possibly the model numbers don't have to match and we potentially could use a drive that is larger than 250g.

Any guidance would be super helpful.

Jim

"If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have become a locksmith" Albert Einstein

NCSS, NCTS, NCTE, CS1000E, Call Pilot
Avaya IP Office
Mitel 3300 Advanced, 5000, SX200, NuPoint, MiCollab, MBG

 

[Billz66]

its normally wise to assume that the originals were manufactured at the same time
- we always replace as a pair
- organise outage - locate new pair of drives with same size ( thats the key ) - we have had issues before with 150G drives from different manufacturers and it wouldnt rebuild

we normally preconfigure ours so same software has been loaded on one and backup restored

then onsite - clear sockets
Clearing RAID Controller Sockets
The RAID controller stores the model number and a serial number of the disks in what is called sockets. This information is used to detect when a disk has been changed. When a RAID controller is shipped, this socket information is clear. There are times this information must be cleared, for example, when you want to install a hard disk that already has a different version of software or configuration, or if you start up the system with one drive installed and that drive is defective.
To clear the sockets, perform the following steps.
1. While power is OFF, verify both hard disks are removed.
2. Turn the MXe power on. Wait until the fault LEDs on the RAID controller are orange.
3. Turn the MXe power off. The RAID controller sockets are now clear.
4. Proceed with the installation/upgrade."

Put configured drive in slot 0 ( bottom i think)

power up and test

then install 2nd drive and the raid will be rebuilt

if you just replace one the other will likely fail and your back again



If I never did anything I'd never done before , I'd never do anything.....

 

[Crowtalks]

I pulled drive 2 and put in my external case and it spins and reads just fine, which indicates to me that it is a working drive.

I read a KB article that says sometime sector errors in drive 1 can indicate drive 2 is dead when its not.

I also saw in the SATA Raid guide under rebuilding that if there are sector errors in drive 1, that can prevent a new drive in slot 2 from rebuilding.

This is a Public Service system that is used 24/7 so downtime has to be minimum.

One question is, if I boot it with empty Raid slots to clear the sockets, as soon as the Raid lights indicate no drives, can I hot-insert a drive into drive 1, or do I need to shutdown, insert a drive into #1 and then reboot again?

Jim

"If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have become a locksmith" Albert Einstein

NCSS, NCTS, NCTE, CS1000E, Call Pilot
Avaya IP Office
Mitel 3300 Advanced, 5000, SX200, NuPoint, MiCollab, MBG

 

[Crowtalks]

I found the info on it...I need to shutdown before inserting a fresh drive.

"If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have become a locksmith" Albert Einstein

NCSS, NCTS, NCTE, CS1000E, Call Pilot
Avaya IP Office
Mitel 3300 Advanced, 5000, SX200, NuPoint, MiCollab, MBG

 

[AH64Armament]

We have been replacing all HDD's with SSD drives. Sandisk 128GB is what Mitel has been shipping with new controllers. They are about $40 on Amazon. Buy a pair of them.
take a backup of the system.
power off.
remove both drives from the system.
power on the system and watch the maintenance port for "sockets cleared"
insert drive 1
Power on the system and do a fresh install.
License the system and restore the database.
Once the system is 100% (minus the redundant drive), insert the 2nd drive and let it rebuild the RAID.


The SSD drives allow the system to boot up in about half of the time it takes for a HDD. And the management response is much better too.


I have found that some other brand drives are compatible with MiVB 8, but are not compatible with the migration to 9. Kingston drives for instance are not compatible.