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Equalogic disks lifespan
I have a Equalogic PS6100XV, it worked well for almost 6 years,
but now the hard drives have started to break down.
I am replacing the defective disks as soon as possible, but 6 HD's were damaged in less than 3 months. Is any equipment defect damaging the disks? or is it just the lifespan of the disks that is coming to the end?
dwilliam62
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December 29th, 2020 05:00
Hello,
FYI: You can't legally use that firmware on those arrays not under contract. Even if you have other arrays that are. When you download it, it's part of the EULA you agree to and it's one of the bullet points on the download page.
usually a drive that has been marked as failed stays failed. Even after an upgrade. You can't upgrade firmware if the RAID is in a non-healthy state. My suggestion is replace the drives first and get your spares back before attempting to upgrade. It is very possible that AFTER you upgrade the improved failure analysis will start preemptively failing drives. Good news is it will mirror the failing drive to the spare, so there's no long rebuild process. I have seen that will very old, well used drives, that iffy drives will be mirrored out. One side note, if you have been replacing the failed drives with larger drives, once ALL the drives are replaced including the spares the RAIDset will expand into the unused space so you will gain more space.
You can convert from RAID50 to RAID6 without losing data. It will take some time to complete and will consume one of your spares. I would do that AFTER you replace all the drives AND upgrade the firmware if you are going to do so. And after you have applied any drive firmware updates.
Regards,
Don
dwilliam62
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December 28th, 2020 06:00
Hello,
There isn't enough information to provide an answer. Have you been keeping both the array and the drives updated with current firmware? Over the years drive manufacturers issues fixes, some to improve longevity. Update EQL firmware improved drive failure detection and failure handling.
Regards,
Don
wagnerss0
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December 28th, 2020 08:00
I never updated the firmware.
Is that a possible reason for the disk failures?
I'll do it now.
Tks.
DELL-Josh Cr
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December 28th, 2020 09:00
Hi,
It is possible that the firmware updates may have prevented the drive failures, it is also possible that this batch has a similar lifespan.
dwilliam62
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December 28th, 2020 09:00
Hello,
It could be but without complete failure analysis on the drives, there's no way to know for sure. Are you running RAID6?
The array should be at 10.0.3 EQL firmware and using RAID6.
Regards,
Don
wagnerss0
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December 28th, 2020 12:00
It's running RAID 50
and the firmware is: v7.0.5.
It was configured by Dell team when we bought it in 2014.
We didn't make any changes at all.
dwilliam62
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December 28th, 2020 12:00
Hello,
thanks for the update. That is very old firmware for sure. Is that array still under contract? If not you might want to consider a Post Standard Support contract so you can get access to the firmware.
It would take a few steps to get to 10.0.3 from where you are now. To get the current drive firmware you would have to upgrade the EQL firmware first. The current kits won't work with firmware that old.
Hopefully you also have a backup? Once all the failed drives are replaced I would strongly suggest that with a complete verified backup you change the raid policy to RAID6. RAID50 is two RAID5 LUNs striped together so a double failure in one RAIDset will bring that array offline.
Regards,
Don
wagnerss0
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December 29th, 2020 03:00
Unfortunately It's not under contract.
I just downloaded the new EQL firmware from dell website,
and we'll schedule the maintenance window to update it as soon as possible.
But I'm not sure about how to get and update the drives firmware.
Yes, we have backup.
Changing the raid policy we will lose all data?
Once the storage array sistem is completely updated, is there a chance to recognize failed drives as "ok"?
There are currently no hotspares available. Can I proceed with the update? or is it necessary to replace all failed drives first?
Thanks again.
wagnerss0
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December 29th, 2020 06:00
Thanks for the EULA information, I'll try to get the contract back.
I need to replace the 2 hotspare disks but the Raid status still "ok/healthy".
I've been replacing the drives with others of the same size.
You said:(...)"after replace all the drivers"(...)? Even the healthy ones?
Regards
dwilliam62
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December 29th, 2020 07:00
Hello,
re: drives. yes. It was a just in case you were getting newer larger drives. Once 100% of the smaller drives are replaced the RAIDset will expand to use the additional space the drives have. Since when you mix a smaller and larger drive in a RAIDset it's the lowest common denominator between that gets used. The space above that is "wasted"
I would replace the spares before attempting the upgrade.
Regards,
Don
wagnerss0
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December 29th, 2020 08:00
Got it.
Thank you so much for your time.
dwilliam62
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December 29th, 2020 08:00
Hello,
You are very welcome! I am happy to assist you.
Have a very Happy New year!
Don