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MD1200 Drive Removal
Morning All,
I have an MD3200i with an attached MD1200 running fine for years. I took a few months off work last year to do a side project, and while I was away 'someone' who I left in charge had to replace a failing 4TB drive in the MD1200. For god knows what reason - he put the drive into the array without putting it into the Drive Caddy AND shoved it in at the last slot of the Array. He also left before I returned to work so I can't ask him WHY he did it ... but now I am stuck with it. The drive is in use and part of a RAID 6 Group. It's working fine, but it's annoying me .. a lot. It hurts my soul every time I walk into the Server Room.
What's the best thing I can do here to pull the drive out, put it into a caddy and put it back into the array. Without losing Data. I do have a Hot Spare in the array.
Cheers!
DELL-Charles R
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April 25th, 2024 20:44
Hello,
Since you have a hot spare and if you can get to the drive that was installed without caddie I would recommend fail that drive and remove it and let the hot spare build.
https://dell.to/4aQIWEY
If you can't get that drive out without problem you may consider shutting it down, pull the drive, put a caddie on and reinstall. Then power up. This method would need a maintenance window.
Daver19
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April 25th, 2024 22:41
@DELL-Charles R Thanks for the Reply!
I did think about just failing the Hot Spare BUT if I Fail the drive and unplug it - How can I use the drive again? Won't the array 'see' it as a Failed drive when I plug it back in?
DELL-Joey C
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April 26th, 2024 04:14
Hi,
Tricky, but yes, the array will detect it as fail drive if it is reinserted back in. Hence, I would recommend initializing the disk outside the array before it is inserted back in. I've not tried this method before, as usually, I would bring the disk offline when the disk need replacement, but in your case, it doesn't. It just needs to be installed correctly with a caddy. Hence, I would second Charles's recommendation, to bring the array offline. Pull out the disk, put a caddy, insert back in and start the array.
Daver19
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April 26th, 2024 06:22
@DELL-Joey C Alrighty - I thought as much. Guess powering down the array, pulling the drive out, putting it in the caddy, putting it back in the array (and leave it in that last slot) is teh best way of fixing this.
I hate powering it down ... I have lost power before (years ago) and noticed that if the MD3200i doesn't shut down first (MD1200 second), then power the MD1200 first, and MD3200i second - it will 'lose' drives in the array needing PitA ssh rebuild commands to 'find' them all again ...