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HP E200i Smart RAID 5 Array Crashed
We had an HP Proliant ML350 G5 with a bad disk in a RAID 5 configuration. I removed the disk last week and ordered a new one. In the meantime the server has been running fine. Until last night. The server crashed again and will not boot. We replaced the disk and initialized the array and the server still will not boot. The controll is an HP E200i Smart Array. As I understand a RAID 5 configuration, if one drive crashes it should still work until you replace the drive. I don't understand why It's not reading the drives.
rindi
If one drive crashes it should keep on running, but it is important to replace the bad drive asap, if another drive goes the array is gone. Often the drives are from the same batch, and if one has reached it's life's end, it is quite likely that the next will follow soon. A good option is to use an online spare, so as soon as a drive says goodbye the hot spare will take over. Also, a degraded raid 5 array will run give you performance issues, so that is another reason to repair the array asap.
ASKER
What happens if you don't repair the array right away? It doesn't seem like either of the other drives failed. I have added a new drive and the array is back up but I can't boot.
It's still possible another drive failed. Sometimes drives have temporary problems that fix themselves again after a while, but even such temporary problems will cause the raid to die if another drive is missing.
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