Specifications

Operation and Management
56 MSA1000 Reference Guide
Replacing Hard Drives
Caution: To replace a hot-pluggable drive, it is important to follow the
guidelines in this section. Failure to do so could result in data loss and could
void your warranty.
Drive failure is indicated by an amber Drive Failure indicator.
RAID 0 is not a fault-tolerant configuration. Never remove a drive from a RAID 0
array unless it has failed. If you are using a RAID 0 configuration, removing an
operating drive is not allowed and will result in loss of data.
To remove a working drive without losing data, the entire array must be backed
up, the drive must be replaced, and the entire array must be restored. Backing up a
single drive and replacing it will not restore the array.
There are some instances in which you may replace a drive in RAID 1, RAID 5,
and Advanced Data Guarding configurations. Table 6, located in the earlier
section “Hard Drive Indicators,” illustrates the conditions when you may or may
not remove a drive in a fault-tolerant system.
Follow these guidelines when replacing drives:
■ Never remove more than one drive at a time (two drives if you are using
Advanced Data Guarding).
When you replace a drive, the controller uses data from the other drives in the
array to reconstruct data on the replacement drive. If you remove more than
one drive, a complete data set is not available to reconstruct data on the
replacement drive(s) and permanent data loss could occur.
■ Never remove a working drive.
The amber Drive Failure indicator on the drive carrier indicates a drive that
has been failed by the controller. Permanent data loss will occur if a working
drive is removed while replacing a failed drive.
■ Never remove one drive in an array while another drive in the array is
being rebuilt.
A drive’s Online indicators flash green (once per second) while it is being
rebuilt. A replaced drive is rebuilt from data stored on the other drives.
■ If the system has an online spare drive, wait for it to complete rebuilding
before replacing the failed drive.