topic Re: Checking Mirrored Drives in Disk Enclosures

Checking Mirrored Drives

Rich_10 — Thu, 29 Nov 2001 18:25:47 GMT

I just set a new E800 server with a 1M raid controller. We are using raid 1. My client wants me to prove that the 2 drives are mirroring each other. Other than physically going in and unplugging them one at time is there anything else i can do?? I showed him that using the net raid software that there are 2 physical and 1 logical drive using raid 1. he wants more proof. Any ideas???
thanks in advance.

Re: Checking Mirrored Drives

Marino Meloni_1 — Thu, 29 Nov 2001 19:43:03 GMT

hi
just run consistency check, it will assure you all data are redundant and raid consistant.
to start it, install netraid assistant on your nt or w2k system, or run it booting from cd-navigator, or start it from express tools in the bios of the netraid card.
bye
marino

Re: Checking Mirrored Drives

Rich_10 — Thu, 29 Nov 2001 19:46:48 GMT

that is my problem. i have done that and showed him that the drives are using a raid 1 config(1 logical drive & 2 physical). is there any way to see the free space and used space on each drive to show him they are the same. i know this sounds strange but i need some help to get this guy off my back.

Re: Checking Mirrored Drives

Marino Meloni_1 — Fri, 30 Nov 2001 10:27:11 GMT

hi
there is no way to see the space used in a raid on each hdd, because you cannot acces to the hdd, only the netraid controller is responsible for managing the hdd.
the dimonstration is in the teory of the raid itself, give to customer a manual which explain the raids levels and how it works.
here is some info
http://netserver.hp.com/support/manuals.asp?pid=HPNetRaid
bye
marino

Re: Checking Mirrored Drives

Marco Hogeveen — Fri, 30 Nov 2001 12:22:40 GMT

Rich,

You can do a "demonstration".
Let your client pick on of the 2 drives in netraid assistant and let if 'fail'. You'll see that the server keeps running just fine and data is still accessible.
Then rebuild it and if he's still not convinced, let the other disk fail and rebuild it (off course after the first rebuild has successfully finished).
If that doesn't convince him...

Marco.

Re: Checking Mirrored Drives

Rich_10 — Fri, 30 Nov 2001 14:08:15 GMT

as far as the "demonstration" goes... Is there a way in the NetRaid Utility to tell a drive to fail. if i have drive 0&1 and 0 is my main drive then i can say make drive 0 fail and drive 1 should continue w/o missing a beat?? Or would i have to change something in the config? After that i would rebuild and do the same thing to the other then correct??

Re: Checking Mirrored Drives

Marco Hogeveen — Mon, 03 Dec 2001 07:32:58 GMT

Rich,

If you're running NT or W2K then you can fail a drive from within Netraid Assistant:
Right click on the physical drive, Select Tools, Select Fail drive.
You might need to do a re-scan by clicking on the light-house symbol if the status doesn't change in fail after a few seconds.
Remember to silence the alarm, the beep will drive you crazy.
It's good practice to have it enabled before failing the drive, it will show your customer that he will be noticed in case a drive failes.
You can rebuild the disk by right-clicking on it and select rebuild.
You'll see a progress indicator of the rebuild.
When the rebuild is finished (the physical drive has an on-line status) you can do the same for the other disk.

Good luck!

Marco.