topic Re: Hotswap vs Hotplug? in ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)

Hotswap vs Hotplug?

Support0123 — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 05:14:53 GMT

We have a ProLiant DL380 Gen9 running VMware-ESXi.
The server has a HP Smart Array P440ar Controller.
The cache module status is currently failed due to the battery capacitor needing replacement.

We have a RAID 5 with 6 disks.
1 Disk has failed, we wish to replace it while the server is online.

We have a replacement HP drive (part no. 653971-001B) which is marketed as Hot-Plug.

Can we use this drive to swap out a failed HDD in this RAID5 config, without shutting down the server?
Is there a difference in hot-plug and hot-swap in a scenario like this?

Re: Hotswap vs Hotplug?

Cali — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 14:31:19 GMT

Hi,

yes, if the Disk has a Red "Button" you can remove the Disk Online (HotPlug).

The rebuild should start automatically if you insert the replacement Drive.

Document - HPE Smart Array Controllers - Drive Procedures | HPE Support

Attention: With no Cache, the Rebuild may be very slow.

Hot-plug support is the requirement for Hot-Swap.

Cali

Re: Hotswap vs Hotplug?

Ihaqueit — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 20:10:22 GMT

Hot Swap means that you can remove the drive and replace it with another drive without significant interruption to the system.In case of a mirrored disk environment, the system should re-synch with the new drive to reestablish the mirrored pair. In the case of a RAID configuration, the system performance may be degraded until the drive is replaced and the checksum data is spread across the new drive, but again, there is no significant interruption to service.

Hot Plug is a little tougher. Hot Plug typically means that you can add a new FRU (a disk drive in our example), but you can not remove the FRU without taking some sort of outage. I say that Hot Plug is tougher in the sense that you need to be careful and not interpret Hot Plug as having Hot Swap capability.

Hot swap lets you insert and remove cards, PC boards, cables, and/or modules from a host system without removing power, Because of the need for High Availability (HA) systems, hot swap has quickly become part of every designer's vocabulary. To increase system availability, hot swap is used to reduce down time, simplify system repair, and allow for system upgrade. Because of these advantages, hot-swap solutions are finding their way into a wide variety of applications