ML350 G6 with 410i raid controller hot swapping

[Eppie252]

Quick question is whether hot-swapping a HDD with a 410i raid controller is handled by built in firmware or do I need to have iLO installed and running?

Reason is that a recent power outage led to one HDD failing, which I replaced and the Raid-5 array appeared to rebuild fine.  A few days later I started to have file access errors and chkdsk found major issues with file indexing.  A chkdsk /F repair was not able to repair the file faults and the OS became corrupted.  This required the OS (SBS 2008R2) to be reinstalled but a repair install was not possible so all apps and settings were lost.  I got the user accounts setup again and have access to shared files again, but I am unable to re-install iLO or any of the HP management software, so I can not view the status of the array.

This system will be replaced in the near future but I suspect that the HDD that I replaced may be faulty and this system provides critical files, so I need to keep it running for a while longer.  My plan is to first replace the spare HDD in bay 4 just to test whether hot-swapping still works.  The LED on the HDD usually blinks steadily while the array is rebuilt.  If that works, then I can replace the suspected faulty drive in bay 1.  My concern, of course, is that if the system needs iLO or other OS files to rebuild the array, then swapping the drive could potentially trash the files on the array.  If this is actually invisible to the OS and handled in firmware, then hotswapping should still be safe without any HP utilities installed in the OS?

[rabindra11sharm · Accepted solution]

Dear  Eppie252  &  monica46cole

HP Smart P410i Smart ctorage controller is a very powerfull storage controller. It did not requaired any application for HDD replacement or rebuilding, Once replaced HDD validated by the controller it automatically start rebuilding propccess. 

Now the situation you are facing that your server did not boot into OS. Please go through the SMART START 8.7 Bootable media and USB KEY UTILITY. make a bootable pen drive using USB KEY UTILITY. boot you server from that Pen drive. once server booted with pen drive. go to Array configuration and daigonestic option, and here you can get HDD status on here. also you can get download ADU log from here, also configure the HDD as per your requairement.

Please check youtube link for details:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-4ogWgIslY

Hope, I could provide you with clear and helpful instructions. If you have any more questions or need further assistance, don't hesitate to ask. I'm here to help!

Have a great day!!

[Eppie252]

@rabindra11sharm 

Thank you both for the replies.  I mainly wanted to confirm that I can continue to monitor the status lights on the HDDs and swap them out in case another drive fails, or maybe swap out the drive that I suspect caused the server OS problems.  This unit is well overdue for replacement but we need a Windows OS that supports the NET USE command.  NET command still works in Windows 10 but I think the last server OS that supported the NET command was Windows Server 2012.  I need to find out whether the NET USE command on client computers can still map to drivers and printers on newer versions of Windows Server.  NET command may not work locally on Windows Server above 2012, but as long as clients can connect printers with NET USE we should still be able to support some legacy apps on newer versions of Windows Server.