Disk Drive failure on RAID5

Question

I have a r510 with a RAID 5 config with a hot spare.
Running vSphere ESXi 5.0.
vCenter is showing Drive 0 failure (predictive).
Dell is sending me a new drive.

What is the process to replace the drive?

Shutdown the server
Reboot
Go into the raid utility
Go to the failed drive
Set it off-line
Pull out bad drive,,
reinsert new drive drive

theflash1932 · Answer

Just wanted that to be clear.  Not enough people know this.

DELL-Chris H · Answer

Then......

The hotspare you have should rebuild to the array when the predicted failure is forced offline. So when you insert replacement drive you can set it as the hotspare, either in the controller bios or in through Open Manage. If you have it installed.

Let me know how it goes.

DELL-Chris H · Answer

Flash, he was saying he was to reboot to the controller BIOS. He wasn't saying he was shutting down and then removing drive.

theflash1932 · Answer

Never power down a server to replace a hot-swappable drive ... if it is hot-swap, swap it hot.

Since the failing drive is not yet failed/offline, you need to force it offline before removing it.

Once forced offline, you can simply insert the replacement drive. It may begin to rebuild automatically, but if it doesn't, then you will likely need to clear the "foreign" configuration from the controller for that drive and assign it as a hot-spare to start the rebuild.

OMSA can be installed on ESX, but you'd probably want to search the forums (or maybe a Dell guy can post instructions to get it running on ESX), so you can do all of this from the OS while it is online. Without OMSA, booting into the RAID configuration utility is the only way to get the option to force the drive online, to clear the foreign configuration, and/or assign disk as hot-spare.

So, if you choose to do this without OMSA, boot to CTRL-R, offline the drive, boot up, insert replacement drive. If the drive does not begin to rebuild, then boot to CTRL-R, clear foreign configuration, assign as hot-spare.

SJNAPL · Answer

ok..below is a screen shot of the error.. i will go with the BIOS CTRLr option.

This is system is used by customers. The VMs are backed up with VEEAM.

Any idea on how long a rebuild will take once the drive is inserted?

thanks

DELL-Chris H · Answer

Yes sir, then you can assign the new one as the new hotspare.

SJNAPL · Answer

ok,, i went into the raid utility..forced disk 0 off line,,,it shows off line..disk 3 is showing rebuild..3 was the hot spare.. do i now remove disk 0 and insert the new drive....

DELL-Chris H · Answer

Thats correct.

SJNAPL · Answer

new drive is in,,i am in PD menu has only an option for disk 0 (new disk) foe 'make global HS,,,i assume this is the option,,,

SJNAPL · Answer

the rebuild was in progress,,disk 1,2,3 were flashing green as expected..

but then, disk 1 and 2 went to solid green and disk 0(new disk) and disk 3 are now flashing green?

i am on a KVM console and it is frozen (this has happened before when gong back and forth from the PC to the BIOS menus) so I can not check the RAID screen.

is this normal to have the new disk 0 flashing as if it is rebuilding?

should I wait for all drives to stop flashing and reobot back to the RAID menu ans set disk 0 to the Global Hot Spare.

thanks

DELL-Chris H · Answer

The rebuild should continue as long as the server is powered.

SJNAPL · Answer

ok,, should I wait for all drives to stop flashing and reboot back to the RAID menu and set disk 0 to the Global Hot Spare

SJNAPL · Answer

update,,,

i rebooted to RAID,, PD menu shows

drives

0 online

1 online

2 online

3 hot spare

i was going to make disk 0 (new disk) the hot spare, but is this correct?

if so, what is the process to put disk 3 online and make disk 0 hot spare?

thanks

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

Disk Drive failure on RAID5

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