Failed RAID 5 - (Rebuild?)

[Iamregin]

Our 3par recently had a 2 drives in a RAID 5 configuration fail. We are outside of support and have upgrade our primary array. This one was for mass storage and stuff we didn't feel was very important (until it was gone). 

We worked with a partner to try to restore the drives, but nothing seemed to work. We eventually came to sending them to OnTrack. No one from the partner or OnTrack told us this would never work. Ontrack said they cloned the drives with 99% sucess from the bad one, to two good drives. Unfortunaly the 3Par doesn't like the drives because the WWNs have changed. 

During research and scouring other forums i've been told two things. Hack the arrays RAID metadata (I don't want to do) or clone all the drives in the RAID 5 configuation and rebuild the RAID. The last one seems more logical, but how is this done? If i put in a new disks i'd assume it would want to creaete a whole new volume and erase what was on the disks? but am i wrong? is there a way to do this? 

Thanks in advance

[Satish04]

Hi Iamregin,

You might not be aware, but the approach you are considering is quite complex and risky. The process involves cloning drives from a RAID 5 array and rebuilding it.

The array will typically attempt to rebuild the RAID set if you replace the failed drives. This assumes, that the RAID metadata is intact and the array recognizes the new drives as suitable replacements. Since the array identifies drives not only by their capacities, but also by their serial numbers, WWNs, and other identifiers, cloned drives may not always work.

You may have changed critical identifiers by cloning drives. If the WWNs of the drives are changed, the storage system may not recognize them as part of the original RAID 5.

A RAID array's metadata contains critical information about its configuration and can be difficult to modify without specialized tools and a deep understanding of its architecture. Manually modifying RAID metadata can result in data loss.

It is important to be prepared in case of data loss, even with the assistance of a technical expert from your vendor.

Note: It is recommended to reach out to HPE tech support to resolve this issue.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Satish