Re: Disk Failure

[James Lampert <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jerry Adams wrote:
> Unit 1 in our four disk set (Raid5) failed.  The IBM CE called and is 
> bringing a replacement, but I've got a question or two before he arrives.
>
> First, isn't unit 1 where the load source lives?
>
> Second, are there any special steps in the recovery because of that?
>
> Third, he said it was hot swappable.  (I'm still going to kick everyone 
> off of the system, though.)  Is it really that easy?

We use mirroring here, but yes, we've lost one side of the load source 
mirrored pair, and it was a simple matter of finding and pulling the 
offending drive, shoving an exact replacement in its place, formatting 
it, and telling the system where to find it.

The whole point of RAID is that any one drive of the set can fail, 
without anything on it actually being lost, since everything on it is 
duplicated in at least one other place.

I don't think we've been in a situation where the load source was 
hot-swappable, but if the CE says it is, it more than likely is.