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December 6th, 2018 10:00
H170: replace failed Raid 5 drive
Hello Internet, Some context before we get started: Server: PowerEdge-T320 | VMWare Version: ESXi 5.0 | OS: Windows SBS 2011 | PERC: H170 | RAID Type: RAID5 | # of Drives in Failed state (according to iDrac): 1 | Status light of failed drive: constantly flashing orange | The problem: I need to get this drive replaced but I am unable to setup or utilize OMSA. So ideally i'd like to confirm the steps needed to replace this drive without utilizing the OMSA software. I've seen this done once before via the BIOS menu's & a reboot but unfortunately I did not write down the steps taken at the time. From what i've been able to gather thus-far; I should be able to boot the server into the raid controller menu via CTRL+R (when rebooting), from there I should be able to navigate to "PD Mgmt" (Physical disk management), select the drive, & then perform the "Replace Member" operation on the failed drive. At which point I believe i will be cleared to remove the old drive & replace it with a new one & resume booting the system. Can anyone confirm that the above would be proper procedure for replacing a RAID5 drive on an H170 PERC without using OMSA, or if there's a better way to do this? Regards & much appreciation for any advice offered, -Cake
Daniel My
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December 6th, 2018 13:00
Hello
You should be able to just swap out the drive with a replacement. If a replacement drive is inserted into the same slot then a rebuild should start automatically. You can read more about the controller in the manual.
http://www.dell.com/storagecontrollermanuals/
Thanks
Cake27
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December 7th, 2018 07:00
Thank you for the reply,
Is there anyway to confirm that the controller will automatically re-build? I read somewhere that hot-swapping must be enable (and it is by default) but since I didn't setup this RAID, I'm unsure what the exact settings for it are.
Daniel My
12 Elder
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6.2K Posts
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December 7th, 2018 09:00
Hot swap is not something you enable or disable with your system. There may be systems that allow it to be enabled/disabled, but I'm not aware of any. The H710 supports hotswap, and if you have a system configuration with a backplane then the system supports hotswap. If the drives are cabled, requiring you to open the case and disconnect cables to remove them, then they are not hotswap.
Once you replace the drive the status LED on the disk should start flashing green to indicate a rebuild in progress. You can also boot to the controller BIOS to check the status. You can find more information about status LEDs in the system and controller manuals.
http://www.dell.com/support/
http://www.dell.com/storagecontrollermanuals/
Cake27
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December 7th, 2018 10:00
Understood,
The configuration is built using the backplane (HDD tray & rail system accessible via front of the machine). To be clear; I should keep the machine powered on during the drive swap & leave it powered on at-least until the rebuild finishes, and the status light on the replaced drive is showing usage (twitching green)?
Forgive me if i'm being over-cautious; just want to make sure i'm not making any rookie mistakes.
-Cake27