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I have the following Raid-5 Configuration with one disk faulty. http://i62.tinypic.com/2z6rxck.png

I need to do a swap out. Not sure with the current configuration if it will affect the other disks, or can I just do a swap out and nothing will be affected?

The replacement disk is the same capacity as the others.

Please help.

Thanks.

Amarnauth Persaud
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2 Answers2

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You should be able to hot-swap that disk with no issues - go for it!

Problems triggered by a drive swap on that controller are rare, usually caused by a combination of old/buggy hard drive firmware and old controller firmware/driver versions.

JimNim
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I agree with Jim, but would caution you before doing a swap, to update your RAID Controller firmware. The Open Manage Console should tell you want controller you have, and if it's no the latest firmware, do a quick update first. I've had a few issues with earlier versions of the PERC 700 firmware doing weird things that updates fixed, and seeing as the Dell controllers are stupid simple to update, I would just avoid the potential issue entirely.

MagnaVis
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    RAID5 with one drive missing and array is degraded, the last thing i would do is start updating firmware. – DanBig May 08 '14 at 16:43
  • Agreed. Replace the drive, wait until the array/virtual disk is in a ready/healthy state, back up the data, `THEN` look at updating firmware/drivers as necessary. – joeqwerty May 08 '14 at 16:57
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    Better yet, institute a quarterly review-and-upgrade process for BIOS and firmwares. – mfinni May 08 '14 at 17:28
  • I can see the concern, and agree that it's valid. But, just like one should be able to swap drives whenever a drive fails, generally without issue, one should also be able to update firmware regardless of drive states. In my experience, the later is usually more important to the effective recovery of failed drives, especially when we're talking about Dell's RAID controllers. @mfinni I totally agree, always a good practice! – MagnaVis May 08 '14 at 22:46