Smart Array B110i Rebuild

[IDCKeith]

I need to rebuild a RAID Array for a customer using the Smart Array B110i. However according to the user guide on the site here it says to account 15 minutes for every 1GB of data which in my case would take a couple days to rebuild this array. What it doesnt mention is if the rebuild is done in the background while the server is running or if the server will be offline during the entire rebuild.

I understand that without the Hot Plug Advance pack I cannot start the rebuild while running windows but if I were to reboot the server and then use F2 to start the Recovery will the rebuild happen in the background and windows continue to load or will the server not go any further into the boot process until the rebuild is complete?

[Goutham_Sabala]

Hi, 

B110i being a smart array controller will support online rebuild, if you look at the guide here http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01706551/c01706551.pdf

it mentions " System performance is affected during the rebuild, and the system is unprotected against further drive failure until the rebuild has finished " , system performance gets affected when the server is online

Also this line means " When automatic data recovery has finished, the state of the logical volume is updated in ACU/ACU-CLI , agents, and an event is posted to the system event log indicating that the rebuild is completed " that online data rebuild is supported

[IDCKeith]

Yes I did read those as well. I had a similar experience with a similar controller (though I admittedly dont recall which model) and after telling it to rebuild it had to rebuild the entire drive (showed progress indicator) before the machine would boot again. Luckily the machine wasnt that critical and it wasnt an issue but this one would be.

I'm probably just being paranoid about it... heading onsite later this afternoon to do it! :p

Thanks for the reassurance!

[Goutham_Sabala]

Sure, do post the results here. Also if some reason it doesnt allow to boot the server before completing the rebuild and if it is critical for the server to come backonline at that time, you certainly can stop the rebuild and start the rebuild later during planned downtime. 

[IDCKeith]

Turns out the client wasnt available today and I had to reschedule. I will definitely update this thread once I do the rebuild.

Thanks!

[christoman]

IDCKeith never posted his experience here.  Does anyone know if a rebuild will be online?

I installed the HotPlug Advance Pack license key in the ACU under Windows, hoping an option to rebuild online would show up?  Is there something else that has to be done to use this feature?

[Allsysgo]

Hi

I know this is an old post, but we have just come out of this situation at a customer site.

The server was under an extended warranty and we did work with HP tech support.

When you restart, the B110i gives you two choices:

F1 to rebuild

F2 to bypass.

You should F2 unless you are aware of exactly what the situation is. We found that the HP Array Configuration Utility was NOT previously installed. We installed the software and found that both drives were OK but the array was degraded. It showed the rebuild was "Queued" but would not start. We found that there was no way to start the rebuild online.

Once we knew our situation, we restarted and selected F1.

The server restarted normally, but the rebuild started immediately once the OS came up. There was about 600GB of data and HP estimates "15 minutes per Megabyte" for the rebuild. The actual time was 9 hours total so maybe the manual is wrong and it should be 15 minutes per Gigabyte.

Hope this helps.

Rich