--- Gilles Schipper <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I prefer NOT to configure any hot spare drives because I believe
> raid1 is sufficient enough protection to allow ample time to replace
> a faulty drive without the extra required i/o in order to complete a
> sparing process after faulty drive has been replaced.

funny you should mention this....

y'all probably know that i have a va7100 array....  it's configured as
raid 0/1.  there are 15 physical drives, one is a hot spare.

get a call last week....machine is running really slow...helpdesk is
getting swamped with calls....what's going on?

got logged on ok but it took 2-3 minutes for glance just to start, let
alone report anything.  once it did, there's impeded processes all over
the place.  something is way bad.

think think think...

hop over to the pc that monitors the va array (via the commandview
software).  oh no!!  two!  yes, two drives have failed!!  i had checked
the array the day before and all was fine.

when the first drive failed, the hot spare kicked in, of course.  when
the 2nd drive failed, about 5 hours later, the va switched into raid 5
(all on it's little own) and spread the data across the rest of the
array.

there are two systems that share this array.  i was *certain* i had two
systems to reload!  but :-) all was well.  once the
raid-5-spread-the-data thing finished, the 1st failed drive was
replaced.  about 2-3 hours later, the va finished writing data to the
new disc....and we stuck in the 2nd disc.  it took days and days for
the va to get the discs rebalanced but there was
 - no noticable performance problems (during the rebalancing)
 - no system downtime
   (although we got users off the system, just in case)
 - no data loss
 - no file system damage

pretty kewl!

thanks, walt! :-)         - d

ps -- if anyone knows how to send snmp queries to a commandview pc, let
me know.  so far, hp is clueless <sigh>

Donna Garverick, HP-CSA   Sr. System Programmer
dgarverick -at- longs -dot- com
925-210-6631              Longs Drug Stores

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are.
"Ulysses", A. Tennyson

>>>MY opinions, not Longs Drug Stores'<<<



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