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From: Sion Jones on 19 Apr 2010 08:40
"Chris M" wrote:

> On 19/04/2010 12:00, Sion Jones wrote:
> > I have a 4xdisc RAID5 setup in our server (small business server 2003
> > premium). However, one of the hard drives has failed. The system is currently
> > still up and running just fine, due to the data redundancy.
> > However, it is now of utmost importance that we replace the faulty disc in
> > the array.
> >
> > How do I go about replacing the drive, and rebuilding the array?
> > Thanks in advance.
>
> Depends. Are you using the software RAID solution built in to Server
> 2003, or is it a hardware RAID controller?
>
> Pretty much any server-grade hardware RAID controller will let you
> hot-swap the failed drive for a new one and the rebuild will commence
> automatically without requiring any downtime at all.
>
> Be careful to make sure whether or not your hardware will allow the
> drives to be hot swapped.
>
> --
> Chris M.
> .
>
It's the software RAID built into server 2003, set up using 4 dynamic discs.
Thanks for the advice. What is the procedure I go through to replace the
faulty disc?

Sion

From: Chris M on 19 Apr 2010 09:28
On 19/04/2010 13:40, Sion Jones wrote:
>> On 19/04/2010 12:00, Sion Jones wrote:
>>> I have a 4xdisc RAID5 setup in our server (small business server 2003
>>> premium). However, one of the hard drives has failed. The system is currently
>>> still up and running just fine, due to the data redundancy.
>>> However, it is now of utmost importance that we replace the faulty disc in
>>> the array.
>>>
>>> How do I go about replacing the drive, and rebuilding the array?
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>> Depends. Are you using the software RAID solution built in to Server
>> 2003, or is it a hardware RAID controller?
>>
>> Pretty much any server-grade hardware RAID controller will let you
>> hot-swap the failed drive for a new one and the rebuild will commence
>> automatically without requiring any downtime at all.
>>
>> Be careful to make sure whether or not your hardware will allow the
>> drives to be hot swapped.
>>
> It's the software RAID built into server 2003, set up using 4 dynamic discs.
> Thanks for the advice. What is the procedure I go through to replace the
> faulty disc?

Chances are you won't be able to hot-swap the drive, so you'll probably
have to shut the server down to replace the failed drive.

Before you do that though, have you tried reactivating the failed disk?
Sometimes transient I/O errors can cause a drive to be deactivated by
the software RAID in windows.

Anyway, assuming you need to replace the drive and you're not able to
hot-swap:

- Shut the server down
- Swap failed disk out
- Power server up again
- Go into Disk Management, right-click the RAID-5 volume and choose
Repair Volume.

I must admit I have very little experience with software RAID. I'm not
sure if you will need to initialize or format the new disk before you
will be able to repair the RAID-5 volume.

Let us know if you get stuck.

--
Chris M.
From: Sion Jones on 19 Apr 2010 11:21
"Chris M" wrote:

> On 19/04/2010 13:40, Sion Jones wrote:
> >> On 19/04/2010 12:00, Sion Jones wrote:
> >>> I have a 4xdisc RAID5 setup in our server (small business server 2003
> >>> premium). However, one of the hard drives has failed. The system is currently
> >>> still up and running just fine, due to the data redundancy.
> >>> However, it is now of utmost importance that we replace the faulty disc in
> >>> the array.
> >>>
> >>> How do I go about replacing the drive, and rebuilding the array?
> >>> Thanks in advance.
> >>
> >> Depends. Are you using the software RAID solution built in to Server
> >> 2003, or is it a hardware RAID controller?
> >>
> >> Pretty much any server-grade hardware RAID controller will let you
> >> hot-swap the failed drive for a new one and the rebuild will commence
> >> automatically without requiring any downtime at all.
> >>
> >> Be careful to make sure whether or not your hardware will allow the
> >> drives to be hot swapped.
> >>
> > It's the software RAID built into server 2003, set up using 4 dynamic discs.
> > Thanks for the advice. What is the procedure I go through to replace the
> > faulty disc?
>
> Chances are you won't be able to hot-swap the drive, so you'll probably
> have to shut the server down to replace the failed drive.
>
> Before you do that though, have you tried reactivating the failed disk?
> Sometimes transient I/O errors can cause a drive to be deactivated by
> the software RAID in windows.
>
> Anyway, assuming you need to replace the drive and you're not able to
> hot-swap:
>
> - Shut the server down
> - Swap failed disk out
> - Power server up again
> - Go into Disk Management, right-click the RAID-5 volume and choose
> Repair Volume.
>
> I must admit I have very little experience with software RAID. I'm not
> sure if you will need to initialize or format the new disk before you
> will be able to repair the RAID-5 volume.
>
> Let us know if you get stuck.
>
> --
> Chris M.
> .
>
Thank you, I'll try those steps and see how it goes. The disc is definitely
failed, I've tried reactivating it twice out of desperation.
Thanks for the advice.
Sion.
From: DaveMills on 20 Apr 2010 03:40
IIRC the replacement disk should not have a partition on it. The recovery
process expects to use "unused" space.

On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:21:02 -0700, Sion Jones
<SionJones(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>"Chris M" wrote:
>
>> On 19/04/2010 13:40, Sion Jones wrote:
>> >> On 19/04/2010 12:00, Sion Jones wrote:
>> >>> I have a 4xdisc RAID5 setup in our server (small business server 2003
>> >>> premium). However, one of the hard drives has failed. The system is currently
>> >>> still up and running just fine, due to the data redundancy.
>> >>> However, it is now of utmost importance that we replace the faulty disc in
>> >>> the array.
>> >>>
>> >>> How do I go about replacing the drive, and rebuilding the array?
>> >>> Thanks in advance.
>> >>
>> >> Depends. Are you using the software RAID solution built in to Server
>> >> 2003, or is it a hardware RAID controller?
>> >>
>> >> Pretty much any server-grade hardware RAID controller will let you
>> >> hot-swap the failed drive for a new one and the rebuild will commence
>> >> automatically without requiring any downtime at all.
>> >>
>> >> Be careful to make sure whether or not your hardware will allow the
>> >> drives to be hot swapped.
>> >>
>> > It's the software RAID built into server 2003, set up using 4 dynamic discs.
>> > Thanks for the advice. What is the procedure I go through to replace the
>> > faulty disc?
>>
>> Chances are you won't be able to hot-swap the drive, so you'll probably
>> have to shut the server down to replace the failed drive.
>>
>> Before you do that though, have you tried reactivating the failed disk?
>> Sometimes transient I/O errors can cause a drive to be deactivated by
>> the software RAID in windows.
>>
>> Anyway, assuming you need to replace the drive and you're not able to
>> hot-swap:
>>
>> - Shut the server down
>> - Swap failed disk out
>> - Power server up again
>> - Go into Disk Management, right-click the RAID-5 volume and choose
>> Repair Volume.
>>
>> I must admit I have very little experience with software RAID. I'm not
>> sure if you will need to initialize or format the new disk before you
>> will be able to repair the RAID-5 volume.
>>
>> Let us know if you get stuck.
>>
>> --
>> Chris M.
>> .
>>
>Thank you, I'll try those steps and see how it goes. The disc is definitely
>failed, I've tried reactivating it twice out of desperation.
>Thanks for the advice.
>Sion.
--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
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