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Author Topic: Replacing HDD on Doremi Steve Moore Expert Film Handler Posts: 211 From: Leeds, West Yorks, UK Registered: Apr 2008 posted 12-30-2013 08:50 AM                     Dear all, I have a question as to replacing a failing drive on one of my sites using DCP-2000 servers which is reporting dev/sdb drive is failing to supply data quick enough and in the last week really has been struggling during 3D screenings. After running an error report it would appear drive B is degraded. The drives in this server are Hitachi 1TB with part number 0A38028 or model HDE721010SLA330. It would appear this drive is now obsolete, and there are none available in the UK second hand; I can only find a few based in the USA on ebay. So my question is, if i can find a 1TB drive with a 32MB cache and server rated for 24/7 use, would the server be happy with mixed brands of drive? How do other users on here manage when drives currently installed become obsolete? Would you replace all three drives or just replace one of them? Kindest Regards, Steve  |  IP: Logged Francois Bouzigues Film Handler Posts: 19 From: Barcelona / Spain Registered: Dec 2013 posted 12-30-2013 09:43 AM                     You can put a bigger disk in a RAID, but it will not change the size of your RAID. If you change the 3 disks, you will have a bigger raid. 1T disks => 2T raid 2T disks => 4T raid 3T disks => 6T raid  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-30-2013 12:14 PM                     Hitachi is now part of Western Digital. The exact model you're referring to is no longer in production, but can still be ordered from stock. But if your supplier cannot do that, it's perfectly fine to go for another vendor like Western Digital. It's actually not really bad practice to run RAID arrays with disks from different vendors, because that reduces the risk of common failures in those disks. There have been some batches in the past that had common issues, both hardware and firmware related. There is just a little catch: If your replacement drive is a few sectors smaller than your current model, your RAID will refuse to rebuild itself. So, if you want to be absolutely certain and don't want to replace all other disks, you could also replace it with e.g. a 2 TByte disk of another vendor. Make sure you buy a disk that is certified for 24/7 use and RAID usage like the WD Re series.  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 12-30-2013 12:39 PM                     I have always been aware of the fact that replacing one disk in the array with a larger one will not increase the size of the array. But reading the last few posts got me thinking: What would happen if you were to replace the disks one at time, say as they fail over time, with larger models. Once all disks have been replaced with larger models, would the RAID still be its original size? I assume the answer would be yes. At that point, could it be wiped and rebuilt to take advantage of the increased size of all of the disks?  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-30-2013 12:43 PM                     Yes, even if you replace all the disks in the "RAID container" with bigger ones, the RAID container itself will still be the same size, unless you recreate it. Some advanced RAID systems actually have the capability to expand themselves (but usually just by adding disks), even while in operation, but I'm not fond of those options.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-30-2013 12:43 PM                        Ken--yes to all. Some RAID controllers are smart enough to expand the array without requiring a rebuild, but most would require wiping and re-building the array to get the benefit of the larger capacity. Note that mixing disk sizes and types will reduce performance. All disks in a RAID group should be the same model and have the same geometry for optimal performance.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-30-2013 12:55 PM                     quote: Scott Norwood Note that mixing disk sizes and types will reduce performance. All disks in a RAID group should be the same model and have the same geometry for optimal performance. There's quite some discussion going on about that. Mixing different drive models can, indeed cause some performance degradation, but in the case of a playback server, that's probably not your main concern. And in practice: Even the big storage boys like NetApp, EMC, Dell EqualLogic, etc. are often mixing vendors and models on their storage solutions (mostly because of availability and price though). Personally, I have found reliability usually to be the more important factor than performance  |  IP: Logged Adam Fraser Master Film Handler Posts: 499 From: Houghton Lake, MI, USA Registered: Dec 2001 posted 12-30-2013 01:36 PM                        A little off topic, but do RAID replacement drives require any work or formatting out of the box. Can I just pull one out of the package that I order from Newegg etc. to replace a bad drive and rebuild the array? We have WD1003 drives and have been wanting to buy one as a spare for our GDC.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-30-2013 01:46 PM                     RAID replacement drives should not to be formatted before being used. Actually, I've encountered some problems in the past with drives that have been formatted before being used in a RAID, probably because the controller did recognize that there was already some data present and didn't want to overwrite that data.  |  IP: Logged Pete Naples Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1565 From: Dunfermline, Scotland Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-30-2013 03:29 PM                     Steve, that'll be one of those 'refreshed' servers then! I wonder if it's got a matching set of eSATA cables internally? At that age it must now be, it's time the drives were replaced as a set, you can up the capacity while your at it.  |  IP: Logged Bajsic Bojan Expert Film Handler Posts: 190 From: Ljubljana, Si, Eu Registered: Aug 2008 posted 12-30-2013 03:54 PM                     while on topic, DCP2000 and 3x 3TB drives are still a no-no, right? or did anyone succeed in doing that? Am asking as i will upgrade this year.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-30-2013 04:17 PM                     I guess that depends on your mainboard. There should be two versions out there: One with an Intel Server board and the other one with the Supermicro X7SBE. That last one should actually be capable of supporting 3TB disks, as they're running them in AHCI mode with software RAID.  |  IP: Logged Steve Moore Expert Film Handler Posts: 211 From: Leeds, West Yorks, UK Registered: Apr 2008 posted 12-31-2013 05:27 AM                     Yes Pete, there were "refreshed" or perhaps just dusted when purchased 2nd hand. I see it has 14,000 hours on the drives according to the report (though we have been running the server since we purchased it for around 5 months) I know I swapped out all my cables in the one at the cinema I work at on a daily basis, however I have not been inside the one causing problems (a 150 mile round trip) so before I set off to look at problems (I just had them email me a server detailed report, as they were having issues) I wanted to go armed with correct bits. Cables were on my mind to replace whilst at it. I will see how I go. At this moment in time I would not have time to swap out all drives and re-ingest. Shame this didn't happen a week ago, could have done whilst it was shut for two days over Christmas!  |  IP: Logged Pete Naples Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1565 From: Dunfermline, Scotland Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-31-2013 09:33 AM                     Dusted on the outside, if you're lucky. I've had several with a mixture of orange and red internal SATA cables, a couple with not two hard drives the same and often as not they haven't had all the upgrades done. How something can be 'refreshed' when it's not even had the thermal upgrade fitted is beyond me.  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 12-31-2013 10:05 AM                     You should use an "enterprise" drive rather than a standard drive, these are not usually stocked at the local computer stores but easy to find online. Doremi will send you a current list of approved drive models on request, other drives will probably work but you may have issues. Some otherwise good non-spec drives will just not be seen by the system, I can't explain how that happens. If the server is still under warranty (possible with 14000 hours on the drives if it's running 24/7) then get a free replacement drive from Doremi. Replacement drives must be "clean" - either new and unused, or with the MBR wiped/zeroed. The server might accept some as-is used drives but I haven't had any such luck: I think you can reinitialize the RAID using them but "repair" without losing content is not possible. Wiping a drive is relatively simple, though.  |  IP: Logged

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