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8 Posts
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4985
March 6th, 2018 07:00
PERC H710P - RAID10 - Drive Replacement Issues
Hello and thanks in advance for any help and suggestions.
I've got a PE-T620 With CentOS on a 500GB (4PD) RAID1 array and 10TB storage (4PD) RAID 10 array.
The last disk on my storage array was flashing amber. The PERC utility showed SMART errors were present, all info about amber flashing said predictive failure, and processes that involved moving large packets of data were extremely slower than usual.
The 4 drives in my RAID10 array are WL5000GSA6454 (5TB SATA III). I misplaced the spare I had in my IT closet so I shopped all over not finding a 5TB SATA / NAS drive that could be delivered anytime in this century. I ended up getting a 6TB thinking it will rebuild the array using 5TB and I'd waste 1TB but at least the array would be healthy and we'd recover lost performance.
When the drive arrived, I was unsure about hot swap-ability so I went into the PERC utility to see if I could force the drive offline. There was an option but the warning message said doing so would ruin my array. The other option was "replace member", when I chose it, the message said, "No spare configured". Since all my bays are in use, I can't configure a spare.
I ended up turning the server off, replacing the drive, and booting back up. No lights on the new drive carriage during boot or otherwise. I went back into PERC and it just says MISSING DISK. I put the old drive in, still says MISSING DISK. I don't see any option to add a new disk, initialize the new disk, or do anything that seems conducive.
The data on that RAID10 array is mission critical. We have online backups but I'd much rather just get the array rebuilt with this new drive if possible.
Either I'm missing some setting or option to get the drive going, or I have to get the same drive as the other 3 in the array. My experience with RAID says as long as the drive is equal or larger than the other members it can be used, but if it's bigger, we'll only be able to utilize as much space as the smallest member in the array.
Right now the OS is bootable with that 4th PD missing but I have it off because I'm scared something may happen that will result in data loss or worse.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
RedeyeJay
8 Posts
0
March 6th, 2018 07:00
Turns out I loaded the drive into the carriage in the wrong position. It was too far back so when I put it back in the server, it never plugged in.
Once I loaded it correctly, it initialized and showed up in PERC as an unconfigured drive. The only option it gave me was to make it a global hot spare. So I did that and it is currently rebuilding. Not sure what the next step is but I'll update the post so it could possibly be useful to someone else.
RedeyeJay
8 Posts
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March 6th, 2018 11:00
Stuck at 22% for 3 hours.
If I stop and rebbot, will it pick up where it left off?
Is that a good idea?
RedeyeJay
8 Posts
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March 6th, 2018 14:00
Thanks so much for replying. I was beginning to wonder.
Still stuck on 22%. The little spinning pipe has stopped spinning but there is are activity lights on the drive(s).
Hard reset or no?
I am messaging you the ST now
Thanks
RedeyeJay
8 Posts
0
March 7th, 2018 06:00
It remained stuck all night. 22%. I shut it off and when it came back up, now drive 6 is flashing amber. The original culprit was drive 7, which is now fast flashing green. I cannot get into the PERC utility because the boot screen is stuck at "initializing HA".
What now?
[EDIT]
After some reading, this may not be the worse case scenario. If drives 6&7 are down, I can still rebuild from drives 4&5 on the other side of the mirror. My hesitation is that drive 7 is flashing green (activity) and I'm wondering if it is being rebuilt and I cannot tell because the screen is frozen.
My other thought is to replace drive 6 now and let them both rebuild simultaneously. I just fear that everytime I shut the server down more damage may be done. I don't know what to do, can anybody help?
RedeyeJay
8 Posts
0
March 7th, 2018 11:00
The server would not get through "Initializing Interfaces...". I replaced pd6, it booted into PERC, showed pd7 as ready, I forced it online, and now pd6 is rebuilding.
I don't think OpenManage is installed unless that's the GUI that comes up after I hit CTRL+S during boot. Has all sort of diagnostic stuff and hardware inventory info.
RedeyeJay
8 Posts
0
October 15th, 2018 11:00
Hey Chris, yes thanks both drives were successfully added to the array. Took 4 days but it finally finished.