Disk Failure

Owned by Anand Rajaraman
Dec 09, 2019
2 min read

Long term storage disk failure needs replacement.

A health alert indicating that one of the long term storage disk drives has failed and needs to be replaced, no data lost, will appear. The 3VR system is robust to single drive failures. If the system is under warranty we will replace the drive free of charge. Otherwise, there will be a nominal replacement charge.

Instructions

Troubleshooting has to be conducted locally (with monitor, keyboard, and mouse connected to the 3VR Appliance or core device).

If this is a multi-box system, the failed drive will be in the external array, and the technician will have to navigate the little LCD display on the front of the array.

  1. Determine which Drive to replace:

    1. Login in as 3VR or techrep and choose to restart the machine.

    2. When you see the 3VR BIOS screen hit Esc to see POST messages.

    3. Hit Alt+3 to enter the 3VR BIOS.

    4. The BIOS will show the RAID 5 array as DEGRADED and will indicate which drive port is failed. The drive ports are numbered right to left 0-4, with 0 being the right-most and 4 being the left-most drive.

  2. Replace the Drive:

    1. Shutdown the machine.

    2. To remove the drive, push the red button on the drive. A handle will pop out of the front of the drive. Pull the handle to slide the drive out of the front of the unit.

    3. Remove the four screws to remove the drive from the chassis.

    4. Screw the replacement drive into the chassis.

    5. Slide the chassis fully back into the system.

    6. Push the handle back into place in the front of the drive to lock the drive in.

    7. Turn the machine on and again enter the 3VR BIOS by hitting ESC at the 3VR screen and the Alt+3.

    8. In the 3VR BIOS, select the RAID array and then choose Rebuild. The status of the RAID 5 array should change to Rebuilding.

    9. Press F8 to exit the 3VR BIOS and the system should boot normally.

  3. For replacing a failed disk in an external storage array:

    1. First look at the LCD panel on the front of the storage array. It should have a red flashing LED and a message indicating that a drive has failed. Note the drive number that has failed.

    2. Next, remove the drive that has failed. (Remember that drives are numbered from left to right starting in the top left corner. For example, drive 6 will be in the second row, second column)

    3. Replace the failed drive with a 250GB Western Digital drive.

    4. After inserting the new drive into the storage box, add this drive as a local spare.

The system will continue to record normally while the array rebuilds. Users who work with OpCenter on the local console will experience some slowness in normal system operation due to the increased load on the drives during the rebuild. Depending on system load, the rebuild can take up to 24 hours to complete.