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Automatic data recovery (rebuild), Time required for a rebuild – HP D2220sb-Storage-Blade User Manual

Page 35

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Troubleshooting 35

These cases are the exceptions:

o

In RAID 6 configurations, any two drives in the array can be replaced simultaneously.

o

In RAID 1+0 configurations, any drives that are not mirrored to other removed or failed drives can
be simultaneously replaced offline without data loss.

Automatic data recovery (rebuild)

When you replace a drive in an array, the controller uses the fault-tolerance information on the remaining

drives in the array to reconstruct the missing data (the data that was originally on the replaced drive) and

write it to the replacement drive. This process is called automatic data recovery, or rebuild. If fault tolerance

is compromised, this data cannot be reconstructed and is likely to be lost permanently.
If another drive in the array fails while fault tolerance is unavailable during rebuild, a fatal system error may

occur, and all data on the array is then lost. In exceptional cases, however, failure of another drive need not

lead to a fatal system error. These exceptions include:

Failure after activation of a spare drive

Failure of a drive that is not mirrored to any other failed drives (in a RAID 1+0 configuration)

Failure of a second drive in a RAID 6 configuration

Time required for a rebuild

The time required for a rebuild varies considerably, depending on several factors:

The priority that the rebuild is given over normal I/O operations (you can change the priority setting by
using ACU)

The amount of I/O activity during the rebuild operation

The rotational speed of the drives

The availability of drive cache

The brand, model, and age of the drives

The amount of unused capacity on the drives

The number of drives in the array (for RAID 5 and RAID 6)

Allow approximately 15 minutes per gigabyte for the rebuild process to be completed. This period is a

conservative estimate, and newer drive models usually require less time to rebuild.
System performance is affected during the rebuild, and the system is unprotected against further drive failure
until the rebuild has finished. Therefore, replace drives during periods of low activity when possible.

CAUTION:

If the Online LED of the replacement drive stops blinking and the amber Fault LED

glows, or if other drive LEDs in the array go out, the replacement drive has failed and is producing

unrecoverable disk errors. Remove and replace the failed replacement drive.

When automatic data recovery has finished, the online LED of the replacement drive stops flashing and

illuminates steadily.