What is a hot-swap SCSI hard drive ?

[vrcatherine]

Hi,

I am new to the networking/hardware.
Correct me if i am wrong.

What is HOT-SWAP SCSI hard DRIVES?

We have ordered a IBM server and while customizing
the server we said we need 2 hard drives.

1. 36gb SCSI HARD DRIVE
2. 36gb SCSI hard drive.

Now today when we got the server and i was checking
the hard drives thru explorer. This is what i see.

C:\ 4GB for pre-loading windows 2000 server.

So i guess from the first hard drive they have used the
4GB for loading the OS.(windows 2000 server).

This is what i was seeing basically through windows
explorer.

I went through administration tools/computer management
and formatted the remaining 32GB from the first Drive
and name it as E:\


I dont see the 2nd hard drive in this management tools
Why is this ?

Do i have to do something else ?

As i am not sure what this HOT-SWAP drives do ?

 

[vrcatherine]

Continued.........

This is what i have.



IBM 36.4 GB 10K rpm Ultra320 SCSI Hot-Swap HDD

 

[etarhan]

Please find my answers, I'm not able to reply all.

The 4GB was most probably reserved by IBM to contain the factory loaded software to be used if you wanted to reload the machine.

A hot-swap drive is a drive which can be replaced while the machine is powered on. There is a certain procedure for doing this properly, and it should be explained in the manual(s) that came with the server.

Good Luck,
Engin

 

[edfair]

Hot swap drives are intended for use in raid systems that are capable of rebuilding the data from the contents of the other drives in the array.

They can be used anywhere, but the hot swap feature is of no use as a stand alone drive.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[wpfaff]

This server may have been setup using RAID level 1. This uses two drives that contain the same partitions and data. This is also known as mirroring. This way if the first one fails then the second one takes over automatically. You network operating system will generate an error message to let you know that this has happened. Then without turning your system off you can replace the failed drive and the users will never know. The drawback to this is if both drives fail or the controller board fails. Make sure that you keep up to date backups to be able to restore from should this ever happen.
When working with a server OS you work with volumns and not physical devices. So if you had three 80 gig drives you could have 1 volumn of 240 Gigabytes.

Hope this helps

 

[vrcatherine]

Thanks for the info.

Now here is the thing i dont want to use hard drives
for any raid,arrary or mirroring.

They should work just as 2 different disks.

Is there a way i can accomplish the above ?

what utility should i use and how can do this ?

 

[edfair]

Should be some setup with the hard drive controller

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[rclarke250]

Well if your system came from IBM as a raid system then you will have a program called servRaid in the programs list. And you can change aspects of the raid from there.
Also what is the M/T and Model number of the server? machine type on IBM's is located on a sticker and will be something like 8668-N6U the 8668 is the M/T and the N6U is the model number. And I can tell what the specs from IBM are on your machine. Also a easy way to tell if 2 drives are there since these are hot swap drives,you will see 2 blue and black levers,might be behind a door on the front.
by each handle will be a sticker that says 36.4GB and the serial ID of the drive. Also during boot watch the screen and note how many drive the scsi adapter sees. When booting a prompt should come up press CTRL-A for scsi.
depending on the scsi chipset used this could be different but press the 2 keys at the same time then choose view drives. you should see 2 drives, If not call your sales person and they will ship another drive. Hope this helps.
Rich

 

[vrcatherine]

Hey Rich,


Machine Type : 8647
Model : 3AX

8647-3AX

I had removed the 2 drives and plugged them into
another bays and they are working as 2 different drives now.


When i press CTRL+A or CTRL +S i see the 2 drives
and there is a column with heading MIRROR Status
and for the first drive it says FAILED and second
drive it says ---.

What does it mean?

Now tell me one thing.

I DONT WANT ANY RAID,ARRAY,STRIPPING,MIRRORING of these
drives. They should work as 2 normal independent drives.

How should i accomplish this. Like down the road after
6 months they should not give me any trouble.

--Cathy

 

[rclarke250]

Well it looks like it was set up as a mirror at one time,but you broke the mirror when you moved the drives to other bays, should have givin you an error stating that drives were in a different place,with F-key options on how to proceed with the boot. That said, can I ask why you don't want raid or stripping if you ordered a system with hot swap drives,when this system offers a non-hot swap option? running the drives as standalone which you can do defeats the hot swap option and therefore you paid for something you won't use, non-hot swap drives are much cheaper also.
Anyways,you just use the serveraid cd to boot the system, should be 5.1 and is actually a linux kernal bootable cd. Then just turn mirroring off for both drives.
They will run independantly. You did get a tape drive option also right? One more thing...no yellow lights on the front of the hdd bays right? a yellow light means a bad drive.
Rich

 

[victorv]

hi

If you want have a clean installation, do following steps.

Your machine is a xSeries x225 8647-3AX

For detailed info see:

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/sit...47-3AX&quickPathEntry.x=9&quickPathEntry.y=13

Your machine hs an integrated RAID1 chip (LSI Logic PCI SCSI/FC MPI Miniport Driver ) and probably a mirror was set.

Then if you want re-do all from beginning building a system
as you want do:

remove disks and at bios level, when LSI logic BIOs says
you press CTRL-? enter it (don't confuse with other Bios
adapter as Broadcom 1Gb ethernet adapter or other)

In the option of mini-configuration, look for a factory reset option. Save switch off the box. Insert Just one disk
and power on. Fire and restop to Ctrl-? for LSI:
ensure you see your disk.

I am a IBM reseller, but I never use Setup CD that comes
with servers: they make server as they want, while, I prefere make server as I want: obviously at begin you have some problem more, but after you know very well the server.

If you put a W2K CD in cdrom, probably you will not be able
to see the disk: the installation procedure starts and says you that there are do fixed disk: this is normal.

Restart installation. In the first steps, Windows says you
a fast message in status line to press F6 if you have special devices: this is your case, press F6, the procedure continues. At a certain moment it ask you for the special device-driver.

Previously, in a PC go at IBM support center :

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-45280#scsi

click on v1.08.22 and donload the 90p4943.exe file.

put it on c:\temp and run it: this will make a Floppy,
follow instructions

Return on server and insert this floppy when requested.

continue with installation.

When installation finishes, in devices manager you will
see some unknown devices or recognized but without driver.

From the same page, download Broadcom eth 1Gb driver, following same tehnique.

When all driver are filled (use also Microsoft Windows Update location for usb driver), insert the second
hot swap disk and using Windows disk management, rescan
disk. Disk E will appear: if you want swap letter with CDrom

disk C,D
cdrom E

using a dummy letter

D->Z ( rename CD )
E->D ( rename Disk 1 ( disk 0 is C ) )
Z->E ( rename CD )

If you have enough courage, follow this !
don't esitate to contact back for any problem .

bye

 

[vrcatherine]

Thanks

I will try this and let you guys know ..

 

[vrcatherine]

Hi,


I have done like what you have said:

I have put the first HOT-SWAP Disk1 and
installed the windows 2000 server
made only one partition C:\ 36 GB



and then after re-booting i had
plugged in the second SCSI hot-swap drive.

And formatted that as E:\ drive 36GB.

Re-booted it 2 times to make sure its
not swapping,mirroring..etc.

All seems well.

When i go to the computer management
this is what it shows me


DISK0 NETFINITYSP USERS (E
BASIC 55MB FAT 33.84 GB NTFS
33.90GB HEALTHY HEALTHY
(EISA Configuration)





DISK1 C:
BASIC 33.89 GB
33.89GB HEALTHY (System)




Is the above thing correct ?

 

[victorv]

hi,

you are on the right way !

If your WINNT directory is on C this is correct.
The strange is that it is on Disk1 tipically the second device.

The disk0 (E: partition) is what was the previously
installed and is best if you remove the
2 partition: 55Mb FAT and E partition (33.84 Gb NTFS)

Probably when you have inserted the first disk, you put
it in second slot, and after you put the second disk in first slot.

To have a clean configuration try this:

- Using disk administrator, remove,
the 2 partitions from disk0 .

- Create on it a "full disk" NTFS partition
and don't assign a letter.

- note well which is this disk
(see activity during formatting ) : if I dont
make mistake, it will be in the 2nd position

- Physically remove this disk without switch off machine.

- in disk administrator, rescan disk,
and ensure disk is not more in config

- shutdown the system

- swap disk C in the 1st position

- turn on the system

- go in Disk Administrator and see if C: (system disk)
is on Disk0

- if all goes, insert 2nd disk, rescan disk:
the second disk is labeled disk1

- change letter at the CDROM: assign E: to it

- assign D: letter to the partition on disk1

- congratulations !!!


bye

 

[vrcatherine]

On my server we have 6 slots from for the hard drives

5
4
3
2
1
0



5 ==== My Operating system hard drive C:\ (DISK1)

4 ==== E:\ drive (DISK0)



Do u want me to switch over as you said ?

 

[victorv]

hi,

Your system is started and probably you can leave as is now.

My opinion ( at this point we are at opinion level ), is

have system disk, with letter C in slot 0, the second
in slot 1, an so on.

The disk position reflects in SCSI id : slot 0 disk-id 0,
slot 1 => disk-id 1.

When the system boots, it trys with Floppy, CDRom, SCSI Adapter; inside scsi adapter, id=0 has greatest boot priority.

If you, tomorrow, add a disk (with a bootable image), in
slot 0,1,2,3 , your system will boot from this disk.

However, have the boot-disk at slot #5, does not modify the good going of machine.

bye

 

[vrcatherine]

Thanks for the help.

Does it screwup soemthing if i change

the slots now ?

0 & 1

C:\ to Slot 0 (disk0)
e:\ to slot 1 (disk1)

 

[victorv]

hi,

I belive all must go, however follow this tactic:

- Remove (hot-swap) data-disk e:
- rescan disk in Disk Administrator,
- Shutdown
- Remove system-disk C:
- Power on, and enter in bios of LSI : restore factory
setting, save and power off
- Insert system-disk C: in slot 0
- Power on and ignore LSI message
- if machine does not boot, power off and put system-disk
in slot 1, continue, put data-disk in slot 0 and rescan.
- if your machine boots with system-disk in slot 0, perform
another reboot, insert data-disk in slot 1, and rescan

- ... use your server ...

bye