Home Forums Server HDDs + frugal idiot

Have some questions about buying and installing drives in my server raid 10 array. I have a failed HDD, which I remember to be in the same slot that was replaced 8/12. It cost $800 plus labor for the local shop where I bought the server in 2008 to replace it. So, they are checking to see if I have a 1 or 3 year warranty on it.

Details if important: HP Proliant ML350 G6 server with raid 10 300GB, 15k SAS 6GB/s 3.5" hot swappable dual port enterprise drives HP 516814-B21

In case the warranty is 1 year, I have been surfing for these drives and found a marked range of prices
$122 http://www.amazon.com/300GB-Sas-15K-Rpm-3-5IN/dp/B002PW4KC0/ref=pd_cp_pc_1 new with a yobitech warranty on Amazon
$190 http://www.harddrivesdirect.com/product_info.php?cPath=130&products_id=455437 new with 3 year warranty on harddrivesdirect
$423 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2TN0ZM5584 new with 1 year limited warranty on Newegg
$489 http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/HP-Dual-Port-Enterprise-hard-drive-300-GB-SAS-2/1863576.aspx new 3 year warranty on CDW
and my favorite
$20 http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/667552097/HP_516814_B21_300GB_15K_3.html I guess you have to buy 500 of them

So is this where a frugal idiot should fear to tread?
Can you just open the package, remove bad drive, and push in new drive while server running, or are there bios, formatting, lose all your data, year ruined, etc traps?

Appreciate any available hand holding on this.

Dan

That's all you have to do. I'd recommend that you shutdown the server before trying to replace the drive. Usually the server is set to auto-rebuild once the drive is inserted. Shutting down protects you in case you pull the wrong drive. The computer simply won't boot where as if you had the computer on, you could some serious damage. So shut it down first if it's your first time.

The HP Array Configuration Utility (ACU) can identify the drive for you as well as tell you the status of the controller. This runs in Windows so you can run that utility to ensure that's the correct drive.

$800 is quite high to simply replace a hot-swappable drive. It just involves removing the drive from the tray and putting in a new one. Takes less than 10 minutes.

Dan, we don't charge nearly that much for hand-holding.

More seriously, HP (and other servers) will show a 3 color LED for status; green-good, yellow-alert, red-bad. There is another led that flashes green with disk activity.

So, looking at the face of the server it should be apparent which one is bad, unless there is more than one alterting, and that would be officially *bad*.

For future reference, many RAID controllers will allow you to assign a spare drive as a hot-spare that the controller will add into the array automatically if there is a drive failure.

Thanks so much for pulling back the curtain for a confused scarecrow and trembling lion, O Great Wizards of IT

Dan,

Though I am not in the league of Sandeep and Indy, I don't think either of them told you one obvious thing. Please turn off all computers connected to the server first, then turn the server off.

This may sound too obvious and maybe treating you like a dummy, but then call me a dummy if you want to. I've turned off the server before while someone was working on a file. Yeah, a bit embarrasing.

Anyway, the rest of the process really is about 10 minutes

Asutosh

Thanks Asutosh,

That is very helpful for me and whoever else gets up the courage to crack open a server to do more than vacuum dust!

Two things:

Definitely agree with Indy on the hot spare. It's like allowing you to have more than one bad drive.

Second: I may be looking at this wrong, but from the list of HDDs, it sounds like you don't have a drive yet. I would recommend having the HDD on premises so you can swap it out immediately. Otherwise, your running slow and hoping no drive crashes while you wait.

I would also go with the Enterprise drive.

Thanks Bert!

I ordered the drive and will wait to change it. If there is a warranty claim I will use that as a spare for the next failure.

Actually, I ordered 3 enterprise SAS drives, the one above and two 2TB SAS drives. My server has 6 bays, and I have been using 4 bays for the raid 10 and 2 bays are blanks. I am planning to remove the failed drive and install all 3 drives.

I am planning to make a raid 1 of the 2 large slow drives for programs and data other than AC and the PM. I'm researching that now, and will ask my IT to ensure it comes off okay.

Your RAID controller is part of mobo. That failed for me...beware. i also had two HP hard drives go at once. Make sure u have backup OUTSIDE of server before messing with it...just saying.

Good points mkweiss.

Just be careful with the RAIDs. You can ask Indy or Sandeep, but I think they need to be the same size. I suppose one mirror could be one size and the other not. But, don't go by me. I would also want the OS and programs on the faster drives and the data on the slower. I have moved the AC databases to the data drive with AC on the system drive before. The only issue is support won't support it or if they remote in they get rather feisty. So, all my programs are on my system drive except for AC, which I put on my data drive. Reason: Backups of D:\drive always contain AC data.

Thanks mkweiss and Bert,

Good points! I am going to let the pros do it, and I appreciate the education.