SC030 - 3 disks failures - How to reset storage

not sure if it'll work but the only thing I can think of trying without the assistance of Copilot/support is try creating a new disk folder, moving them to that folder, and then kicking off a RAID rebalance.  that should remove user data from those drives.... BUT, I've never tried it when the system considers the drives bad.

Thanks for the suggestion. We tried that and the re-balance will not run.

ok - so if I understand you correctly - you want to reset the system to factory default so that you can build something new without the bad disks in it. 

Three challenges here - 

1) License - which you can get from Copilot IF YOU HAVE TITLE TO THE BOX (I dont think ownership transfers are in the licensing agreement, but I could be wrong). Its possible a partner could talk Copilot into giving them a copy of the license file with the SSN. 

2) Cache card - without a working cache card, the system is essentially dead from a production/speed point of view. Spindle without cache is VERY slow.  (and will cause the system to constantly error because the cache card is down). 

3) Installation process - the SC/Compellent systems have professional installers that handle the process. If you can find a manual that lays it out, it will also contain the lines you would need to type for that firmware version to reset the configuration and startover. 

Its not the greatest donation in its current state... later Compellent systems had more permanent cache cards instead of ones that expire each year. 

Micheal,

Thanks for the reply. I have worked with IBM, NetApp and Nimble, but this is my first experience with Compellent. I am glad that while I worked as a consultant and network engineer I didn't sell or install a compellent. Having to call tech support to delete/format disks is nuts along with having cache cards that expire. This isn't the newest piece of equipment but most of the quality gear I have worked with is supportable for quite some time and you can actually maintain it if you have some experience. I guess I shouldn't have expected much, I think the controllers are supermicro servers.

At the end of the day I just want to wipe the disk data and create some volumes.

I wasn't sure if a factory reset wiped the license, since there isn't much info outside of the GUI online.

Running slow isn't to big of an issue, we have students running VSAN and I wanted  to spin this up for a second storage location for VMs and backups.

I know this is a little old... what did you end up doing here?

We are likely to get our SC8000 back into service for a lab, but I'm running into the same issues as you are.

Thanks