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Hot swapping defunct disks

 
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Terry B_1
Occasional Advisor

Hot swapping defunct disks

Hi guys I have a situation at a customer site who has a fairly vintage HP9000 with 2 RAID-5 arrays (one is on an external disk enclosure)with a failed drive. Since we are afraid this server will not come up again if we bring it down, are the drives on these server hot-swap? and even if they are, are there any commands that need to be invoked when a disk is taken offline and replaced? Thanks.
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A. Clay Stephenson
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: Hot swapping defunct disks

Since you haven't bothered to identify the arrays; it's not possible to answer. The internel arrays are not arrays at all but rather JBOD's. There are commands for replacing these disks "on the fly" but not all of them are hot-plug disks. You simply haven't provided sufficient data yet.

Model numbers and OS would be a very good start.
If it ain't broke, I can fix that.
Prashant Zanwar_4
Respected Contributor

Re: Hot swapping defunct disks

Even though the it will be possible to change the disks on the fly, you will have to look config from server side too..How the drives are used, they are spare/mirror or what..YOu really have to take care before changing'em

Thanks
Prashant

"Intellect distinguishes between the possible and the impossible; reason distinguishes between the sensible and the senseless. Even the possible can be senseless."
Terry B_1
Occasional Advisor

Re: Hot swapping defunct disks

Sorry about that Clay, unfortunately I am not near the box right now, and have no access to it. I am going over there with another server tech today and only the guy on site has the root password. Is there any way to tell if the drives are hot swappable?
A. Clay Stephenson
Acclaimed Contributor
Solution

Re: Hot swapping defunct disks

If you could get your client to do an ioscan -fn and post that output that would probably help along with the output of the "model" command.

For example, if this old beast is a "K" box, the internal disks are not hot-plug or hot-swap.

For a very good procedure, search for "Procedure for replacing an LVM disk in HP-UX 10.x and 11.x" but you must be under a support contract to access it. This white paper covers all the combinations and permutations of replacing disks. Some old HP arrays (e.g the 12H or 12 AutoRAID's) are trivially simple. In that case, see disk with yellow LED, yank said disk out, insert replacement, walk away. Other arrays require commands. Again, not enough data.
If it ain't broke, I can fix that.
Terry B_1
Occasional Advisor

Re: Hot swapping defunct disks

Thanks guys, I went over to see the customer and was told that the drive somehow came back online?? I will use the information you have provided me nonetheless since it seems somewhat fishy to me.