Dell Power Edge 2950 Hard Drive Replacement Firmware issue Old HD T211 New HD T107

Yes, just boot to the disc and update the drive firmware. You probably won't have any issues with it rebuilding on the old firmware, but yes, the best practice would be to keep everything up to date.

I'm surprised it didn't rebuild automatically when they swapped it, sometimes you have to set it as a hot spare but normally if you hot-swap them they start rebuilding straight away.

Sounded to me like he was asking before swapping it … yes, if you just swap it, it "should" rebuild automatically - and you are unlikely to run into issues with the firmware versions - but you would assign it as a hot-spare if it doesn't rebuild automatically. You can rebuild then update the firmware after as there is a very low risk of something going wrong for that reason - or you can do it before to be safe ... I've never run into an issue with this, and I just update the drive at the next round of maintenance updates.

Possibly, wonder what they put it in to see what firmware it had on it though.

Good point … he probably looked at the label … entirely possible the actual loaded firmware is newer than the label.

@Andyalder I'm not quiet sure if this was the correct way of installing the hard drive but I couldn't verify if this array was setup with a hotspare or not so I shutdown the server after hours and when I put in the harddrive and booted it up I got the following message  "Some configured disk have been removed from your system or are no longer accessible. Please check your cable press any key to continue or press the C to load the configuration utility. When I hit C to load the configuration utility I got this message "Entering the configuration utility in this state will result in drive configuration Press Y to continue or power off the system. I just powered off the system and installed the old drive and booted the system back up. I need to replace the drive I talked to server supply and see if they had one with the same firmware unfortunately but they said they couldn't control the firmware and what not so I still have the drive I just need to install it in the system and get the rebuild started.
Is the correct way for that to happen to have the server on and running esx and then pull out the old drive and then insert the new drive and the rebuild process will start. Never had to replace a hard drive in this server and there is a lot of confusing information some say turn the system off some say to not turn the system off. I also can't verify if this has a hotspot spare in configuration any help and advise on step by step to accomplish replacing this drive I'm sure it is something simple I just don't want to message anything up thank you

@Andyalder I just look at the label of the drive to see what firmware it said on it T107 on it since it was a new drive I just assumed that was the firmware that was installed on it when I looked at the old drive and it had a firmare T211.
@Andyalder - Don't turn off the server leave it on and remove the failed drive and replace it with the new drive if it doesn't start rebuilding automatically then go in to OMSA and set the new drive as a hot spare and it should start rebuilding. After that go in to OMSA and check the firmware to make sure it is the correct one or at least the same firmware version that the other 5 drives are T211. If that doesn't work then make usb bootable drive and boot system up using usb drive and update the drives firmware that way correct. Thank you for your assistance.

Sounds good to me. I wouldn't worry too much about the firmware, if the drive has worked for this long the firmware is probably good enough.

@Andyalder - I put the new drive in and now my open managment doesn't show the new drive though there are green lights flashing but it looks as though it is not recongized in open mangement how can I verify that is infact going through a rebuild. Here is the log file from OMSA.
  Wed Jan 30 13:34:50 2019  Storage Drive 0: Drive Slot sensor for Storage, drive removed
  Wed Jan 30 13:34:51 2019  Storage Drive 0: Drive Slot sensor for Storage, drive fault was deasserted
  Wed Jan 30 13:38:00 2019  Storage Drive 0: Drive Slot sensor for Storage, drive presence was asserted
There is an option under perc5 that says set hotspare protection policy but I haven't went in there.  Do I need to go in there and find the drive to make it a hotspare.
It still shows disk 0 failed even though the light and the e1810 error went away so I'm guessing it is liking the disk but I don't see the new disk in OMSA and the green lights are blinking so I'm pretty sure that means it is in a rebuilding process may OMSA 6.2.0 doesn't give you that much detail. How can i very that a rebuild is in fact taking place and it recongizes my drive. Thank you

Screenshots would help, although going to sleep now.

@Andyalder Thank you again for all your help are these the screen shots you were looking for all the lights on the server are green the new drive that was just inserted is flashing like crazy the LCD is now the normal blue instead of the orange background. If you need anything else from me please let me know thank you again for the information.
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Here are some more screen shots just incase you wanted more of them for more information thank you again.
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It shows disk 0 as failed.
If you replace it you should be able to see a rebuild percentage
https://www.dell.com/support/contents/uk/en/ukbsdt1/Videos/VideoPlayer/NkNm1ndTq9JuNHM6IxDWWAK55HYfr6Cl

@Andyalder I don't have a rebuild option under virtual disk when I click on HD 0 and I click the drop down menu I have blink , unblink. I'm using OMSA 6.2.0 not sure If I need to upgrade OMSA to get the rebuild option. If I were to shut the server down after hours and go in to the configuration utility I should be able to see if it is rebuilding in the bios? If not I should be able to see the drive and add it and get it to start rebuilding I think.

@PowerEdgeTech You stated if it doesn't start rebuilding automatically that I would need to assign it as a hotspare so it would start rebuilding how would I go about doing that. I'm a little confused as to why I don't see that my drive was added. makes me wonder if the raid is rebuiliding it just doesn't show on OMSA but this is the first time I'm replacing a drive in this older server. Thank you

There is no rebuild option, I must have explained badly. *If* it is rebuilding you get a progress percentage that goes from 0 to 100%.

If OMSA shows the disk as faulty then blink/unblink is all you get on the physical disk. You have to remove the failed disk and replace it with the one Serverworlds sent you. Blink/unblink will help you see which disk it is.

OMSA-Pic.PNG shows disk 0 is failed, I think that is the original disk you put back in yesterday.

@Andyalder - Correct OMSA showed the disk failed 0 Failed so yesterday while the server was on and running I removed HD 0 that had a flashing amber light and replaced it with the same drive that had a different firmware T107 at least on the label. As soon as I replaced the drive after about 5 - 10 minutes the light stopped flashing amber and instead started flashing green and the lcd was displayed in amber now it is the regular color and this is the log file.

The OMSA pic is the OMSA that I still have after replacing the drive it doesn't even see the new hard drive granted this is on a virtual server that I have not restarted are anything not sure if that would change but logged out of OMSA and logged back in thinking it would need to be refreshed and it still shows HD 0 failed.

Not sure if there is a rebuilding process that is going on since the harddrive led light flickering in my opinion the way it is flickering I think indicated a rebuild but nothing in OMSA and the log are showing that to be the case. I've attack the alert log for the perc 5 should've done that last night just incase you want to look at those to thank you.
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@Andyalder - Any suggestions I still can't see the disk in OMSA do I need to go in to the bios of the raid card and see if the disk is recongized do the log files show any errors? Need some suggestions on what I can look at next do I need to upgrade my OMSA current version is 6.2.0 thank you.

Looks to be a faulty replacement disk.

@Andyalder - After I restarted the server I was able to go in to the bios and the harddrive was recongized with the virtual disk. So the HD was not faulty. Thank you for all you help

@Andyalder - It wasn't a faulty Hard Drive not sure why it was showing the updated info but after I restart the server and went in to the bios I could see the drive and the T107 firmware  I continued to boot the server up and went in to OMSA  went under Perc and virtual disk it is now showing the harddrive along with the firmware and it doesn't say degraded anymore. Guess it just needed a restart to show the hard drive in OMSA.
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