smart array controller 3200 failed drive 2

[awise]

Compaq proliant 1600 - 3200 array controller
windows 2000 AD - Main DC of network server

I have a raid 1+0 array with a failed drive.
The server is operating normally and no users have complained about perfromance or any other issues related to this.

I have a identical drive to swao out with the failed drive.

I'm out of practice with hardware related server DR situations so I appreciate any thoughts and comments.

My plan is to power down the server and then swapping out the failed drive with the replacement. Powering up and I
expect the bios to detact the new drive when the controller takes over and the drive will be automatically detacted and formated into the established raid array.

Do my expectations sound correct? Is there any need to access the array utility prior or after the drive is detacted and the O/S loads and the windows server system takes over? If I can log onto windows (2000 sp4) and verify that the drive is operating properly, is there anything else I should do?


(mgmt for years, long time off servers, lone engineer on vacation, out of country)

knees knocking, please help!

Many Thanks,

zaw

 

[stduc]

That is what I would expect to happen. If the RAID is a hardware RAID I would expect it to detect the new drive and auto synchronise on boot up. If software I would expect windows to do the same thing, but later in the boot sequence.

Either way its going to be a long boot - Maybe several hours. Depending on the data transfer speed and disk sizes of your rig.

By synchronise - I mean detect the empty drive and offer to copy all the data over from the good drive thus re-establishing the mirror with its redundancy protection.

The only thing you have to watch out for is that it may offer you a choice - i.e..

Copy drive 0 to drive 1
Copy drive 1 to drive 0

enter 0 or 1

Sort of thing.....

Be certain which drive has the data on it and which way you want to copy from....to!

Maybe doing a full backup of the server to tape before you start could be a good plan?

 

[mrlucio79]

I don't think you will expierence a long boot. Insert the new drive and power on. The drive should automatically rebuild. Check your array manager for status.

 

[kmcferrin]

I don't recall which model the Proliant 1600 is, but if it has hot-swap drives then you wouldn't even need to take the server down. Just unplug the bad drive and plug in the new one. It will automatically detect the drive replacement and rebuild the array without intervention.