replace hot swap drives 1

[bookouri]

I have an ML570G3 thats running out of space. Its currently running a mirror pair of drives for the OS and a Raid5 with hot spare for the data. All the drive bays are full. I have new larger drives to replace the RAID5 drives with. Several times in the past I have increased drive space like this. Replace the old drives one at a time and allow each new drive to rebuild. Then once all the drives are rebuilt you can expand to take in the new space. I have never had a failure doing it this way. But, now I have to do it on a production oracle database server that handles the company's primary business. Im considering taking the extra effort of shutting down the server to replace each of the drives, but other than that I dont know of any other precautions I can take.

Does anybody have any other suggestions about the safest way to accomplish this?

 

[psyclone1976]

the method you have described is the safest way, just remember to disable the spare first otherwise you will be waiting while the spare is used. I can't think of another way other than ensuring that you have a safe backup of all the data in case anything goes wrong

 

[TheLad]

Try to swap the disks when the server is less busy... for example at the end of the day before the backup window starts. That way, when you pull the active disk from the server (thus failing it), you reduce the risk.

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[bookouri]

I figured it might also be a good idea to do all the firmware updates on the server before i start the process.

And, ill have to figure out how to disable that spare.. I hadnt thought about that.

thanks

 

[psyclone1976]

I'd be cautious of doing the firmware updates at teh same time. Doing only the drive swaps and partition expansion will reduce the risk of something going wrong. If you have performed this operation sucessfully on the array before then you know if works. Complete the disk swaps and expansion and then plan the firmware updates for another time.

You should have the HP Array Configuration Utility installed on the server OS. Check the programs menu for any HP or compaq folders. You will not be able to disable the spare if your array only has 3 disks and 1 spare. Swap the spare first and then perform the steps

I'd do the following steps.

1. Stop all apps/DB's running on the array
2. Take Full backup
3. Check amend settings of Array controller to ensure, rebuild and expand priorities are on High.
4. Swap a drive in the array and use the ACU to monitor that the array has rebuilt sucessfully. Then continue until all the disks have been swapped.
5. Expand Array
6. Expand partition.
7. Use disk part to extend windows partition into new unused space.

 

[TheLad]

You might have to pull the spare for the duration of the disk swaps otherwise when you pull a disk the spare will be put online.

Apart from that, the instructions above will suffice although point 1 is not necessarily needed

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[psyclone1976]

The Lad - you could get away with pulling the spare but i usually swap it first, especially if it is a global hot sapre and could be called into use for a drive failure in a different array such as the OS array.

I would normally include Point 1 to ensure that minimal disk I/O at the time of the rebuild so that the process completes quicker.

bookouri - have you considered expanding the array to include the hot spare? You will get better performance and gain more disk space. If you keep a spare disk onsite so then you can swap it quickly if you do suffer a drive failure.

 

[bookouri]

I had not thought about exactly what the online spare was buying me until the last couple of days. Since I always have some spare drives on site, the online spare is not providing me a lot of extra insurance, so the suggestion to suck that spare into the array makes a lot of sense. the spare is only used for this one array so nothing else is going to need it.