MiVB MXE III 8.0 PR3 Redundant drive dead

[Crowtalks]

I discovered one of our 250g HDD is bad in the SATA RAID (#2).

Four or five years ago I replaced one of them and at the time I was thinking that Mitel said the model numbers of the drives have to match, etc, so we ordered a matching model and I replaced the defective drive. I don't recall the particulars, like whether it auto mirrored, etc.

Looking about on forums it seems that possibly the model numbers don't have to match and we potentially could use a drive that is larger than 250g...however, in KB 06-5191-00213 it says:

Hard Drives Must Match in Size

Both hard drives in a redundant hard drive MXe Controller/MXe Server must be the same size. They can have different manufacturers, but the drive sizes must match. When comparing hard disk sizes, ensure that the accessible capacity of the drives is the same. For example, a 40 GB drive from one manufacturer could have a different accessible capacity than that of a 40 GB drive from another manufacturer.

Any guidance would be super helpful.

Jim

[johnp]

What version is running?

[Crowtalks]

If you mean system version, its 8.0 PR3 (14.0.0.127)

Jim

[acejavelin]

Order a new pair, backup, replace drives, reinstall, and restore...

Use SHOW STATUS REDUNDANT for information about the redundancy.

[ZuluAlpha]

I have also seen where the RAID Controller itself goes bad so there's another fun layer of complexity.

[Crowtalks]

I pulled drive 2 and put in my external case and it spins and reads just fine, which indicates to me that it is a working drive.

I read a KB article that says sometime sector errors in drive 1 can indicate drive 2 is dead when its not.

I also saw in the SATA Raid guide under rebuilding that if there are sector errors in drive 1, that can prevent a new drive in slot 2 from rebuilding.

This is a Public Service system that is used 24/7 so downtime has to be minimum.

I ordered three new matching model number drives from Newegg...So it looks like I need to (do as you said) shutdown, place new drive in slot 1, fire it up and restore to the new drive, then add drive 2?

About how long will this take, do you reckon?

Jim

[johnp]

You should verify what partition it is currently booting from.
This is what I would do:
1. pull drives and boot up to clear sockets, you should be able to see this if connected to maint port. Shut back down
2. install drive 1 and boot, i would skip memory test and stop the process to change boot parameters
3. set parameters to do a Boot_Install and load current software version from hosted ftp
4. after fully up login, change password, add dns settings and license. This will require another reboot
5. restore database
6. put in second drive, should start a rebuild

[ZuluAlpha]

Do not skip step 1! It's tempting to chuck the old and load the new but if you skip clearing the sockets it will keep looking for the old drives.

To help minimize downtime - step 6 can be done in production once the system is back up.

As for how long it takes, there's a few reboots plus loading the software involved so dedicate no less than a couple of hours and really 4ish to be safe. If you have a spare system lying around you can load the 8.0 SP3 software on disks before scheduling the downtime and that will save you some time in the field.

[Crowtalks]

Thanks for the info. I am going to schedule the procedure Monday evening when traffic is light.

Once the drives have been pulled, the sockets are cleared and the new drive is in slot 1, can I still access the system via IP?

If not how do I need to access the system to tell it to restore to the new drive?

(I built this system in 2017 when I was with the local ILEC, but I have only accessed via IP since).

Jim

[ZuluAlpha]

If the new drive has the base software already on it, you can access via the browser, use the default creds, and do a restore. That's probably the fastest way too.

Then once it's all up the RAID automatically rebuilds when the second drive is inserted.

[Crowtalks]

Thanks, the new drives don't have any software on them.

How do I apply the base software to them?

[ZuluAlpha]

Thanks, the new drives don't have any software on them.

How do I apply the base software to them?

The updater tool is pretty handy in that regard, but I am not 100% sure it can be used on blank drives. Without, I'd usually interrupt the boot sequence via the serial cable. Never had the opportunity to to try it without.

[Crowtalks]

I ordered a drive with 8.0 base software on it...

[johnp]

I think you may be wasting money and it might happen that your mirror drive is not compatible, I would read the tech handbook regarding this. It tells about setting up local ftp to host the install files.

Did not say to change the first to motfcc or equivilent, but part of the Boot_Install process

[Crowtalks]

If the new drive has the base software already on it, you can access via the browser, use the default creds, and do a restore. That's probably the fastest way too.

Then once it's all up the RAID automatically rebuilds when the second drive is inserted.

I picked up a drive that has 8.0 sp3 pr2 -14.0.3.37 (closest software they had to mine)

My system is at 8.0 pr3 - 14.0.0.27

Do I need to have my licenses upgraded to the sp3, pr2 through AMC first, or does the license even care about the software patches and patch release?

Jim