RAID5 disk fail

[badders]

A disk on one of our servers running RAID 5 has died. Is it possible to use a non identical disk to replace the failed one? The server is using an intel board S5000VSA with Embedded Server RAID Technology II. There was a RAID 5 consisting of 4 Western Digital WD1500ADFD hard disks. The RAID 5 is currently running as degraded which seems to allow us to copy work but not change it or create new work on the array.

[steveg]

In theory yes, you can replace it with a non identical disk. It will only use as much space from the new disk as the others use. for example, if the others are 100gig disks, and you put a 500gig in to replace the failed one, it will just use 100gig of it. If the new disk is significantly slower then it will also slow the others in the array down.

 

Steve

[BatchFile]

Word to the wise though - EVEN if it's supposed to be hot swappable, DON'T if you can possibly avoid it - Our IBM X-226 was supposed to be - so I did, ended up with over 500000 lost files - Chkdsk tastic! Edited May 6, 2009 by BatchFile

[Michael]

Installing a hard disk with the nearest specifications is highly recommended. Buy the same brand and make sure the cache, speed and capacity are the same or better. You cannot go wrong then, or reduce the speed of your array.

[TronXP]

Word to the wise though - EVEN if it's supposed to be hot swappable, DON'T if you can possibly avoid it - Our IBM X-226 was supposed to be - so I did, ended up with over 500000 lost files - Chkdsk tastic!

 

Our X226 has raid 5 we had a disk fail, it hot swapped no problems.

[Jamman960]

I'm assuming the drive is within its 5 year warranty(the board you mentioned isnt that old) your best bet would be to request(or demand) an advance replacement with western digital, it shouldnt take more than a day or two to arrive.

 

Failing that one of these should do: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-236-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=167

Edited May 6, 2009 by Jamman960

[badders]

Thanks for eveybodies useful information. I've got a replacement arriving tomorrow (hopefully same model as the failed one or very similar). Do I just replace the faulty disk and then let it rebuild itself or is there more to it than that?

[BatchFile]

Our X226 has raid 5 we had a disk fail, it hot swapped no problems.

 

LOL I'm happy for you

 

Thanks for eveybodies useful information. I've got a replacement arriving tomorrow (hopefully same model as the failed one or very similar). Do I just replace the faulty disk and then let it rebuild itself or is there more to it than that?

 

So they say Assuming I was just unlucky, then yes, that's all you're supposed to have to do you put it in and the drives go mental for an hour or so while it rebuilds itself.

[Jamman960]

If you do decide to do it without taking the server offline and are sure your backplane is hotswappable you just need to remove the failed drive, wait 30 secs or so(let the server recognise the disk has gone) and then put the new drive in, doing it too quickly can cause problems.

 

If possible I'd shut it down and repair the drive with the OS offline, its faster and safer (I've never been brave enough to try hot-swapping a disk as yet)

Edited May 6, 2009 by Jamman960

[Richie1972]

Had a drive fail in our RAID 5 on a Fujitsu Primergy server - simply swapped out faulty drive, fitted new drive in caddy, slotted back in and away it went - no downtime (lots of disk activity whilst rebuilding, though)

[badders]

How long does it take to rebuild? I'm guessing it's several hours.