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PowerEdge 1900 two drives "missing" from the RAID5 array
The server went down on Friday and boots to "press F1 to retry boot or press F2 for setup". After try many reboots I used Ctrl + R to get into eh RAID configuration utility and it showed virtual drive 0 as offline and the last two disks were missing. We had Jungle Disk on the server so all the data is backed up but I want to see what it would take to possibly get this server back online. Would I be able to replace drives 2 and 3 and fire it to rebuild?
Anonymous
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May 7th, 2015 12:00
Yea that's what I thought. I won't be back there until the end of next week but I'll give that a try and post back...Thanks.
theflash1932
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May 7th, 2015 12:00
No, you can't rebuild with two failed/missing disks - the array is dead/offline in this state. Don't replace any disks until you get the array back online/degraded.
In CTRL-R, on the VD MGMT screen, highlight the controller (upper-left of screen), F2, Foreign, Import, then attempt to boot your OS.
theflash1932
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May 8th, 2015 08:00
Four drives in a RAID 5, two showing missing with at least one of those showing as "foreign" on the PD MGMT screen, there is a better than 9/10 chance importing the foreign config will bring it back online.
If I understand what you are saying, as it is written, it is a HORRIBLE idea. With all original disks inserted, and as long as at least one missing disk is showing as foreign, you can import the foreign configuration. If both missing disks are showing as foreign, it will ONLY import ONE of the foreign disks - the last disk to go "missing", to ensure the best data match with the array. BY DESIGN, it will leave one disk in a FAILED state to be REBUILT (not forced online or imported) later.
xByteSean1
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May 8th, 2015 08:00
PSTORIC,
You actually cannot recover from a 2 disk failure when you are running raid 5. Essentially your raid data is now gone. As long as you are backed up, the only real solution is to replace the failed disks, delete the raid configuration as it stands now and then recreate it with all good disks, and restore from backup. I have seen some clients trick the raid card by replacing one disk at a time as stated above, and import the foreign config each time, but there is now guarantee your config will return. Its a good thing you backed up :)