Redundant hard drives failure

[dred]

what should be the correct procedure in the event of hard drive failure if you notice an amber light on the RAID controller?
I believe I should first replace the RAID controller, then the failed hard drive and then reconfigure RAID.

 

[chiph]

Is the light on the controller, or one of the drives?<br><br>If it's on the controller, does the controller have battery backup? (i.e. Does the battery need replacing?)<br><br>Do you have the RAID configuration utility?&nbsp;&nbsp;If so, what does it say?&nbsp;&nbsp;If you're using a Netfinity server, the RAID config program is located on the 2nd CDROM (labeled 'Soft Pak' or something).&nbsp;&nbsp;Be sure not to do something dangerous, like delete your logical volume!<br><br>Chip H.<br>

 

[dred]

The light is on the controller and it does have battery backup. There is no data on the drives andf the RAID configuration after replacing the drive and bringing 2 drives on line indicated 3 physical drives and 3logical drives attached t 1 of the physical drives.<br><br>BY ignoring the light and the existing RAID configuration on this Netfinity server I should not have been surprised that all 3 drives failed within a week.

 

[chiph]

dred-<br><br>That sounds like an odd configuration... 3 physical drives have 3 logical volumes, but they're attached to only one of the physical drives... That seems to say to me that your configuration is something like:<br><br>P1:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;L1<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;L2<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;L3<br>P2: &lt;empty&gt;<br>P3: &lt;empty&gt;<br><br>Obviously, you've got no redundancy like this.&nbsp;&nbsp;I would expect your 3 logical drives to be spread across all 3 physical drives in order to provide the most protection.<br><br>In any case, is your Netfinity system under maintenance?&nbsp;&nbsp;If so, you should be able to call IBM and have them come out and replace the defective drive(s) free of charge.&nbsp;&nbsp;They can't replace any data you might have lost, of course &lt;g!&gt;.<br><br>It's been my experience with IBM drives that they last a good amount of time, but as soon as one goes, any others you bought at the same time will follow it within a short amount of time.&nbsp;&nbsp;Which you seem to have experienced, too.<br><br>Chip H.<br>

 

[lej]

The LED on the RAID controller may not be anything other than the controller is online. I agree your drive arrangement appears to be unusual. It appears you have 3 HDs with 1 HD in a RAIL level 0 with 3 partitions.

What type of RAID adapter are you using? What RAID level do you have configured, 0, 1 or 5? What is your NOS? Do you have the RAIDAdmin utilities loaded?

lej