Re: [cobalt-users] XTR Raid 5 hard drive failure

["Chris L" <clathem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "B McCoy" <bcmccoy42@xxxxxxx>
To: <cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 11:29 AM
Subject: [cobalt-users] XTR Raid 5 hard drive failure

> 1.Is there a way to confirm that this drive is bad and not rely solely on
> active monitor?

You could pull the drive out and run some diagnostics on it. There may also
be a way to test it while in the server, but I am not certain on this.

> 2. If it is bad what would happen if I replaced it with the first
supposedly
> bad drive with the original data on it.

If I were gonna try replacing the "faulty" drive with the original drive, I
would definitely remove all data and partitions from the drive first.

> 3. Running raid 5 what happens if I remove the drive or simply
> reboot?  ( I am running 4 30 gig hard drives raid 5) I don't want to lose
> the machine on a weekday.
>

You shouldn't see any problems if you reboot or remove the drive. The array
is designed to continue running, even when short one drive. If you lose a
second drive whils this drive is down, you will have serious problems.

> 4. In case I can't find the original drive ( we recently moved and it may
be
> hard to find) does anyone know the brand and specs of the drives that were
> original equipment. I think they 30 gig Western Digital ID but that's all
I
> can remember. My machine is co-located off-site.
>

Original specs aren't that critical. As long as the drive you replace the
faulty drive with is of the same or larger capacity and speed, it will not
affect your array. If you use a smaller drive, I believe the RAID software
will reject it and not attempt to rebuild on it. I'm unsure of what it will
do if the drive is slower, but most likely it will slow the array to run at
the speed of the slowest drive.

Regards,
Chris