Texas Memory Systems RamSan-325/325c - Manual (Page 104)

RamSan-325/325c User’s Manual - 100 -
9.3 Hot Swapping Disk Drives
The RamSan-325 includes four internal hard disk drives in a RAID
configuration.
The RamSan’s internal disk drives are equipped with industry standard
Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART). The
RamSan uses SMART to track vital hard drive performance statistics,
which helps it to diagnose imminent disk failures. The RamSan system
monitoring software queries the disks periodically about their SMART
status. If SMART indicates an imminent disk failure, the system
monitoring software will display a warning message in the system log.
If a single hard disk drive fails, the system continues to write to the
available hard disk drives. When this occurs, replace the malfunctioning
disk with a new hard disk drive. Once inserted, the system synchronizes
the new disk. While the restore degrades overall system write
performance if using Active Backup TM , read operations continue
uninterrupted.
Important:
Do not remove disk drives during synchronization. Removing disk drives
may destroy data on all disks, which requires removing and replacing all
drives for a complete synchronization with memory.
If all hard disks fail, the system automatically detects this and stays
operational; however, the system remains volatile until all hard drives are
functioning properly. When the new drives are replaced, the system
rebuilds the drives from the system memory image.
Use the following steps to replace bad disk drives:
1. Verify that disk synchronization is not in progress. If one is in
progress, then wait for the synchronization to complete before
continuing.
2. Slide the hard disk eject latch to the right.
3. Remove the hard disk by pulling squarely on the handle.
4. Insert new hard disk squarely into the available slot. Ensure the disk
drive is completely inserted into the system and flush with the chassis.
Warning:
The system erases any pre-existing data on hard disk drives inserted into
the RamSan-325 while the system is running.
Important:
TMS does not advise removing functional hard disks. While the action
should be perfectly safe, it may affect system performance or downtime,
depending on the system mode, as the system synchronizes the new disk
drive.