[CentOS] [HW] Do the HDD cages in rack mount chassis indicate visual/audio HDD failure?

Arun Khan knura9 at gmail.com
Tue Oct 18 15:11:13 UTC 2011


Hi Michael,

On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 5:35 PM, Michael Schumacher  wrote:
>
> On Tuesday, October 11, 2011 you wrote:
>
>
>> I would appreciate clarification on the following:
>
>> (a) Indicate disk failure. LED lights up and/or audio alarm?
>> (b) The failed HDD can be swapped.
>
> Don't rely on the LED going on. I mark all my hot swap disks with
> labels with their serial number. This label is visible from the
> outside without removing the HD.
> That way, I can double check that I remove the faulty disk.
> Pulling the wrong disk is the last thing you want to risk in a RAID
> setup. Relying on a fault LED is close to that.
> Also make a list of the HD serial numbers and their position within
> the RAID in time. Store that in a safe place.

Thanks for these very helpful suggestions - good admin practice.

> I pulled ONCE the wrong disk out of a Raid5 array. :-(
> You know what that means?

You mean, it is not OK to pull out a "functioning" disk?  Pulling one
disk out of RAID 5 should be OK.  Am I missing something?

Thanks,
-- Arun Khan



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