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The following procedures are for recovering from a drive failure with and without a standby drive. If for some reason these procedures do not start the rebuilding process, instructions are also provided for manually starting a rebuild after a drive failure.
CAUTION: Install either local or global standby drives previously installed and configured for each logical drive array before a failure occurs. Depending on the type of RAID level used and archiving procedure implemented, significant data loss might occur in cases of single or multiple drive failures. Additionally, make tested spare drives readily available on site for immediate replacement if a malfunction occurs.
Automatic Rebuild Using a Standby Drive
When a drive associated with a fault tolerant logical drive fails, and a standby drive has previously been installed and configured as either a global or local spare, the failed drive is automatically substituted and its data rebuilt using the designated spare drive. For this to occur flawlessly, the spare drive's capacity must always be equivalent or larger than the failed drive that is being replaced.
The rebuilding process normally starts within one to two minutes. It is performed in the background and takes approximately eight minutes per Gbyte when there is no other activity on the controller. During the automatic rebuild process, normal activity can continue, although performance might degrade. The degree to which performance degrades is determined by the rebuild priority set for the controller.
To change the rebuild priority, see Changing Controller Parameters The progress of the rebuild process is displayed when you select View > Array Admin Progress. To Re-establish Automatic Rebuild Capability
Device Rebuilding Without a Standby Drive If there is no standby drive in your array, you need to replace the failed drive before the automatic rebuild process can start.
To Check the Progress of the Rebuilding Process The Controller Array Progress window is displayed that shows the completion percentage of the rebuild. However, if there are array activities (such as initialization, rebuild, or parity check) occurring on multiple controllers, the Select Controller Progress window is displayed first.
Manual Rebuild In most cases, you do not need to use the manual rebuild process because replaced drives are automatically rebuilt. If a spare is not present when the failure occurs, or for some reason the drive does not rebuild, you can use Rebuild to manually start the rebuild process.
Also, if the rebuild process is interrupted by a reset, use Rebuild to restart the rebuilding process.
The rebuild process is performed in the background and takes approximately eight minutes per Gbyte when there is no other activity on the array controller. During a rebuild, normal activity can continue, although system performance may degrade. The degree to which performance degrades is determined by the rebuild priority set for the controller. If there are array activities (such as initialization, rebuild, or parity check) occurring on multiple controllers, the Select Controller Progress window is displayed first. |