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

Tue Oct 11 14:29:28 UTC 2011
Arun Khan <knura9 at gmail.com>

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 12:46 PM, John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com> wrote:
> On 10/11/11 12:11 AM, Arun Khan wrote:
>> In rack mount chassis, do the cages that house the
>> hard disks have the following feature?
>>
>> (a) Indicate disk failure. LED lights up and/or audio alarm?
>
> that requires specific configuration to suit whatever drive interconnect
> you have.

Does these bays have a connector (+ cable) that is connected to the
motherboard or RAID card to control the HDD LEDs in the bay?
(sorry if this appears basic but I have no experience with such hardware)

>> (b) The failed HDD can be swapped.
>
> If they are in hotswap bays, yes.  if they aren't, no.

Are the hot swap bays compatible with Linux mdadm RAID?  i.e. Upon
detection of disk failure, the respective HDD LED on the bay can be
turned ON?

>
> they have 2U servers with as many as 25 2.5" SAS bays now.
>

The 2U system is for an appliance that I am building and it will be a
commercial product.  I plan to order the "integrated" system from
"value add" SIs of Supremicro/Tyan (whover is able to satisfy the h/w
spec.).  My storage requirement is 2TB (4X1TB disks), a 6 disk bay
should be sufficient (or whatever is the lowest denominator).

I am trying to reduce the cost if I can get by
with mdadm RAID10 with additional tools to detect failed drive and
then rebuild the s/w RAID10 when a new disk is inserted.  In some
cases, it will not be possible to service the unit by me and for that
reason I am looking for a visual clue (LED ON) so that I can guide the
local sysadmin.  I may have to go with H/W RAID if it is not possible
to do the same with mdadm RAID.

Thanks for your help.
-- Arun Khan