This is a really stupid question, but I can't find any answers to it in the documentation. We are going to replace the 4GB drives in our F210's shelf with 9GB drives by manually failing the 4GB disks one at a time.
What concerns me is that the documentation mentions that failing a disk _permanently_ marks it as failed, so that it cannot be used in another filer. Am I totally naive, or is there some way that you can permanently mark a disk so that even if you reformat it, a filer still knows that the disk is failed?
I don't intend to try to use the disks in another filer, but I am worried about rendering seven 4GB disks unusable with any SCSI system. Will I be able to use these disks with SCSI-equipped PCs?
Jason Priebe WRAL OnLine http://www.wral-tv.com/
* Priebe, Jason (priebe@wral-tv.com) done spit this rhetoric:
This is a really stupid question, but I can't find any answers to it in the documentation. We are going to replace the 4GB drives in our F210's shelf with 9GB drives by manually failing the 4GB disks one at a time.
Not sure why you'd want to do that, as this would make only 4G of each of the 9G drives useable...
What concerns me is that the documentation mentions that failing a disk _permanently_ marks it as failed, so that it cannot be used in another filer. Am I totally naive, or is there some way that you can permanently mark a disk so that even if you reformat it, a filer still knows that the disk is failed?
I don't intend to try to use the disks in another filer, but I am worried about rendering seven 4GB disks unusable with any SCSI system. Will I be able to use these disks with SCSI-equipped PCs?
All it does is mark the raid label as broken, so yes to both.
- Priebe, Jason (priebe@wral-tv.com) done spit this rhetoric:
This is a really stupid question, but I can't find any answers to it in the documentation. We are going to replace the 4GB drives in our F210's shelf with 9GB drives by manually failing the 4GB disks one at a time.
Not sure why you'd want to do that, as this would make only 4G of each of the 9G drives useable...
What he said. When a smaller drive fails over to a larger spare, the larger spare is marked down as having the same capacity as the smaller. You would end up with a shelf of 9GB drives and the usable capacity of a shelf of 4GB drives. Better off dumping to tape and restoring to a shelf of empty 9GB's.
Previously, Tom wrote:
Better off dumping to tape and restoring to a shelf of empty 9GB's.
Or better yet, using vol copy.
Tom
Except that it sounded from his description that he doesn't have a shelf to put the 9GB drives in...
Previously, Jason wrote:
I _would_ dump, then replace all the disks, but we can't buy pre-canistered 9GB SCSI disks anymore. So we're (on the advice of our sales rep) replacing the disks in the canisters ourselves. This is a laborious process, and I don't want to add to the downtime between dump and restore by trying to do it offline, so we're trying to do it one by one while the filer is online.
Are we crazy?
Okay. Bottom line: if you put your 9GB drives in as hot spares and fail over one at a time, you will end up with a shelf of 9GB drives that have ALL been marked as 4GB capacity. You will be right back where you started for all your trouble. If you don't have a separate shelf for the 9GB's (or can't borrow one from NetApp ?) you'll have to go to tape.
Permanent isn't so permanent. If you pull the drive out, it will not be marked bad. If you put it back after the box starts rebuilding the raid in it will be marked as a spare. If you fail the disk with a command it will be marked bad. It can be unmarked by erasing the label I believe.
Tom
On Fri, 12 Nov 1999, Priebe, Jason wrote:
This is a really stupid question, but I can't find any answers to it in the documentation. We are going to replace the 4GB drives in our F210's shelf with 9GB drives by manually failing the 4GB disks one at a time.
What concerns me is that the documentation mentions that failing a disk _permanently_ marks it as failed, so that it cannot be used in another filer. Am I totally naive, or is there some way that you can permanently mark a disk so that even if you reformat it, a filer still knows that the disk is failed?
I don't intend to try to use the disks in another filer, but I am worried about rendering seven 4GB disks unusable with any SCSI system. Will I be able to use these disks with SCSI-equipped PCs?
Jason Priebe WRAL OnLine http://www.wral-tv.com/
-
Gordon Keegan -
Jerry Talkington -
Priebe, Jason -
tkaczma＠gryf.net