RAID Harddisk Replacement

1 Introduction

This description is valid for Infortrend RAID system: "A04U-G2421".

The RAID system is setup as a "RAID 1" with one spare disk.This means that it contains three disks. The first one holds all data.The second one is a exact copy of the first.The third, spare one, will take over function of the other's if one of them fails.With this settings two of the disk can fail and your system is still running.However if one fails it should be replaced as soon as possible.

1.1 Normal condition

File:RAID normal.png

1.1.1 Disk failure condition

In case of a disk failure the system will beep and the LED of the affected drive will turn red! Your system will look like this

File:RAID failure.png

This means the disk in slot two of the raid had failed.Nevertheless there is no danger of data loss because still another disk is runing as mirror. Only some redundancy is lost.To get it back,you should replace the damaged disk.The new inserted disk is the new spare disk.

How the system behaves if a disk fails depends on which disk is actually affected.If a spare disk breaks the signal lamp glowes red. Normally however either the original or the mirrored disk will fail.In this case the affected disk glowes red,the spare disk will be activated and a "rebuild" process starts in which the data of the original disk will be mirrored to the new one. This can take roughly 2 hours.

2 Steps to be done to replace a harddisk

Attention

It is supposed that the new harddisk had never run before on a RAID system.If it had already run,some configuration data are stored on this disk and it can therefore behave different from what will be explained in the following lines.

2.1 Preparation

1. Press"PowerDownButton" of LINUX server and wait untill all processes are stopped and the server is turned off.
2. Turn off the RAID system

2.1.1 Replace harddisk

File:Replace harddsik.png

1. Make sure that the mechanical lock of the HDD tray is open.
2. Press the Release button of the relevant HDD-slot and pull it to a level position.
3. Grab the front bezel and pull out the HDD assembly frame.
4. For installing the new one do it the other way around.

2.1.1.1 Check functionality of RAID System

1. Turn the RAID on and wait until the selftest is finished (The Ctrl Status LED on the reverse side is glowing green)
2. Turn Linux server on.
3. At one of the operator staions in the IPC room:

* Login as user which has acces to windows desktop.E.g."ce"
* open the internet Explorer
* in the address bar enter the IP-Address of the Raid-System like 10.XX.YY.179 
*(replace XX and YY with the Commission-Number,for example the Commission number of your line is 1498,
type in 10.14.98.179)

File:RAID GUI Tools.png

4. When the message with the RAID GUI Tools appears,press run

File:Infortrend RAIDWATCH.jpg

5. In the next screen,select "Configuration" in the username box and confirm with OK

6. Click Physikal Drives-> maintain spare

7. At next,we have to distinguish two possible cases.

• The slot which is not red marked in the image above is illuminated green:

-> press "Next" Button to define the slot as new global spare

• The slot is illuminated yellow

-> The slot is already configured as global spare (continue with step 8)

8. Check

You should see 3 disks. 2 displayed with green LED and one with an yellow "+" sign.The disk with the "+" sign is the spare one. The exact location is not important.Important is that you have two disks showing green LED and one showing a yellow"+".

Move the mouse-pointer above the "LED" to see following

File:RAID 8.png

Check that you have "Status:Good".

Move mouse-pointer above the "+" sign to see following:

File:RAI 9.png

As this is the "spare disk" you should see: "Status:Global Spare".

Move the mouse-pointer above the bottom "LED" to see following:

File:RAID 10.png

Check that you have "Status:Good".

If you don't see it like that please contact Brückner

Close the Internet Explorer