Chapter 5: Drive maintenance
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Chapter 5: Drive maintenance
This section contains the following topics:
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•
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If a disk drive fails, replace it as soon as possible.
Drive maintenance guidelines
■ You can replace a single failed or failing drive without disrupting operations.
■ Do not remove a drive until you are ready to replace it.
■ Replace drives only with drives of the same size, speed, and type. For information on supported
replacement drives and the required firmware revision, contact
.
■ Store drives properly. Store replacement drives in the packaging in which they were shipped. Do not
stack drives or place anything on top of a drive.
■ Protect drives from electrostatic discharge. Wear an electrostatic wrist strap when handling a drive,
unless it is protected from electrostatic discharge.
■ Handle drives carefully. Hold a drive only by the plastic part of the carrier or the handle. Do not drop
or jolt a drive or force a drive into a drive slot.
■ Do not leave a drive slot empty. Each drive slot must contain a drive or a blank carrier. Operating the
server with an empty drive slot voids your warranty and support contract.
■ Do not remove a drive from its carrier unless instructed by
.
■ Keep shipping material. Return a failed drive to
in the packaging in which the
replacement drive was shipped. Shipping drives in unauthorized packaging may void your warranty.
Drive replacement requires a RAID rebuild, which might take some time to complete on a server that
contains many GB or TB of data. The rebuild might proceed faster if you complete these tasks:
■ Quiesce I/O or do the replacement operation at a time when I/O is minimal.
■ Shut down VMs.
■ Migrate VMs to an alternate host.
Note:
You can use the LEDs to monitor the RAID rebuild status.