sglee
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Hot Spare Testing on Non-HotSwap server
Hi,I have 4 non-hot swap hard drives attached to LSI MegaRAID SAS controller in HP Proliant ML110 G6 server.
Two of them are set up in RAID 1 and I am using the other two HDs as global hot spare.
The whole purpose of the setup is for testing HD failure.
My question is, considering this is NOT a hot swap server, if it is ok if I unplug the SATA cable from any of these hard drives while server is up and running? Will there be a damage to the HD if I do so? I just like to see how global hot spare can effectively replace a bad hard drive in RAID system.
Thanks.
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It'll get logged on the disk so don't do it too often or it'll come up a a predictive failure,
While I appreciate that this advice contradicts a previous suggestion, I would advise playing things as safe as you can when testing. Rather than pull the SAS/SATA cable while the server is up, bring the server down, pull the cable, then bring the server back up. Best not to have your hands in the server while it's powered up, if at all possible.
ASKER
If this server was in production environment, I would absolutely shut it down completely before I do anything.
No question about it.
But this is my test server and test HDs that have no data or values.
Since it is SATA, I thought I could get away with unplugging "data cable" from the hard drive (to simulate HD failure in hot-swap environment).
I will try that and report back.
No question about it.
But this is my test server and test HDs that have no data or values.
Since it is SATA, I thought I could get away with unplugging "data cable" from the hard drive (to simulate HD failure in hot-swap environment).
I will try that and report back.
ASKER
I tried unplugging and plugging USB data cable from the hard drives while they were on.
It was just fine. Even though there was a delay in showing (30 seconds) the update/change in RAID management screen.
If these hard drives were in hot-swap bay, then RAID management screen would have shown update/change in < 10 seconds.
It was just fine. Even though there was a delay in showing (30 seconds) the update/change in RAID management screen.
If these hard drives were in hot-swap bay, then RAID management screen would have shown update/change in < 10 seconds.
It would probably have been the same. The hot-swap caddies just makes it easier to remove the bad disk and insert the good one, as you can do that with the server closed, right from the outside.
It takes time for the new disk to power up and get spinning at the correct speed, and then to do some self-tests, and then for the rest electronics, including the RAID controller, recognize and identify the new disk.
It takes time for the new disk to power up and get spinning at the correct speed, and then to do some self-tests, and then for the rest electronics, including the RAID controller, recognize and identify the new disk.