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jeffmorales
5 Posts
0
976
April 28th, 2009 15:00
Upgrading the FLARE drives
I was told that I could upgrade the drives where the FLARE code resides (Drive 0 to 4 on Enclosure 0) by pulling one drive out at a time and placing the new drive in then waiting for the rebuild to complete. I attempted to do this beginning with drive 4 and the array would not accept the new drive. Can anyone verify that this can be done and possibly provide a proper procedure for doing this.
The array is a CX300 with FLARE version 26.
The current drives are 73GB FC.
The new drives are 500GB FC.
Thanks in a advance!!
Jeff
The array is a CX300 with FLARE version 26.
The current drives are 73GB FC.
The new drives are 500GB FC.
Thanks in a advance!!
Jeff
470
1
Posted April 28th, 2009 15:00
What is the part number for the drive? You should reference that with the 'EMC CX3 Series and CX Series Storage Systems Disk and FLARE OE Matrix' on Powerlink to ensure that the drives you are trying to use are compatible with that array.470
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Posted April 29th, 2009 00:00
Absolutely !
I must say I've done this several times by replacing 146's with 300's on CX3's. Both disks were supported of course.470
0
Posted April 29th, 2009 07:00
Oh, by the way: welcome to the forums ! Please introduce yourself in the coffee corner and another best practice is to mark any helpful or correct answers if you thnik they got you on the right track470
0
Posted April 29th, 2009 07:00
Thank you guys for confirming that it can be done. I already have several of these drives working elsewhere in the array, but I went ahead and checked the matrix document and everything seems to be right. I guess the last thing I need to know is if there's any specific procedure that I should follow or settings that I need to change in order to replace the old drives with the new drives? Should I start from any particular side of the FLARE drives? (drive 0 or drive 4 or doesn't matter)
Thanks!470
1
Posted April 29th, 2009 07:00
If the drive is supported, it doesn't matter at all. Just replace them all. Not at the same time of course, hahaha, but pull 1 drive and insert a brand new (empty) one in the freed slot. Let the rebuild take it's course (check for the blinking lights and the event log of the SP's to be sure. Once the drive is completely done, relpace number 2 and wait again..... and so on until all 5 drives have been replaced.470
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Posted April 29th, 2009 08:00
When you inserted the new drive what were the indications - any error messages?
Generally you should use Proactive Sparing to replace disks - that way you eliminate any issues for rebuild - takes longer but is safer.
glen470
0
Posted April 29th, 2009 11:00
@RRR - Thanks for the details on the process and for the welcome to the forums.I'll try to swing by the Coffee Corner as soon as I get a chance.
@kelleg - It seems that the array just refused to use the drive at all. When I dropped the new drive in, the array started analyzing the drive and then it just dropped it as if the slot was empty. I first thought that maybe the new drive I used was bad so I popped in one of the others and it did the same thing. I received 10 of these drives and the ones I inserted into slots 5-9 worked fine. I was working my way backwards on the enclosure. I had also received 5 other 500GB drives of the same type a few weeks before and used those in slots 10 to 14. Those have been working fine since I installed them.
Someone told me a little while ago that it may have something to do with the RPMs of the drives. The old ones that I'm removing are 15K RPM and the news one are 7.2K RPM. Does that make any sense?470
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Posted April 29th, 2009 12:00
JeffM,
Can you please check a drive assembly for a part number / model number, and advise back.
Regards,
DGM470
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Posted April 29th, 2009 12:00
DGM,
The P/N on the carrier is 005048596 Rev: A07.
The drive info is:
Seagate Model #: ST3500071FCV
Seagate Part #: 9Y8207-031
Firmware: FDB4
Thanks,
Jeff
DGM3
238 Posts
603
0
Posted April 29th, 2009 12:00
Thanks. You've got drives that are model CX-2G72-500 - these are 7200 rpm and provide a Fibre Channel interface with an ATA head-disk assembly. Sometimes referred to as FATA (Fibre-ATA) or LCFC (low cost fibre channel). While these drives are supported in the FC enclosures (e.g. DAE2, DAE2P) used by the CX300/500/700 arrays, they are not supported for use in the database/vault locations (slots 0 through 4, of Bus 0 Enclosure 0). This is consistent with your noted observation that they came online in slots 5 through 14, but won't come online in slots 0 through 4. At this point you can continue to use the 500GB drives in slots 5 through 14 (they will peacefully co-exist with other FC drives); and in slots 0 through 5 you can either leave the current 73GB FC drives, or could deploy higher capacity FC drives (e.g. 450GB) that are 10K or 15K rpm.
Regards,
DGM