The following events could indicate that a storage drive needs to be replaced on Volicon server:
- The Volicon server is beeping and has a red light on a hard drive.
- Megaraid warnings are displayed when logging into the computer.
- Error messages are reported by Intel Rapid Storage.
To determine the cause and solution it will be necessary to use the responsible management application to determine if the drive has existing SMART errors or an excessive number of media errors.
In most Volicon systems this is MegaRAID Storage Manager. Launch MegaRAID Storage Manager and login in using the existing Windows admin account credentials
The following link to MegaRAID documentation includes descriptions to find in the Dashboard how to display "Media Error Count" (bad drive sectors) and "Pred Fail Count" (SMART errors). This information starts on page 288. An example of how the Physical Properties tabs displays these values is in Figure 155 on page 289.
https://docs.broadcom.com/doc/pub-005110#page=288
If the drive has 0 SMART or Media Erros, then it should be possible to rebuild the array without replacing the drive. This is accomplished by:
1. In the Logical tab, right clicking on the drive that shows in MegaRAID as "unconfigured foreign" or "unconfigured bad" and selecting the option to mark it as "unconfigured good".
2. Right click on the Controller and select "Scan Foreign Configuration" and follow the prompts to import the array configuration
3. The array should automatically start rebuilding. This process can take a number of hours depending upon the size of the array. You can check its progress by going to Manage > Show Progress
It may be necessary to attempt to rebuild an Array more than once. There are a number of reasons why a RAID Controller will drop an otherwise good drive from an array.
In some cases, drives may be managed by Intel Rapid Storage Technology. This includes when a Volicon system does not have a RAID controller installed, or system boot disks are plugged directly into the motherboard rather than a RAID controller. Following is a link to documentation that includes instructions for looking into Media and SMART errors on these disks:
https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/chipsets/imsm/sb/irst_user_guide.pdf
In older Volicon systems it also possible that the RAID controller is managed through 3DM2. The following link is to the documentation of that application. Of particular note for the purpose of diagnosing issues with drives is the section beginning on page 138, "Maintaining Units"
https://www.digiliant.com/docs/3ware9650SE-UsrGuide.pdf#page138
If a drive is reported to have SMART or an excessive amount of Media errors, or it fails 2 rebuild attempts, it is recommended to replace the drive. Volicon systems that were invoiced less than 5 years ago are eligible for RMA replacement. To begin this process, please contact support with the following items:
1. The Serial Number of the affected Volicon host. This is avaialbe on a sticker on the side or back of the machine. This is important for support to determine the hardware waranty status
2. A screen shot from MegaRAID or Intel Rapid Storage that shows the status of the drive and displays SMART or Media errors
3. The serial number of the affected drive. MegaRaid and IRST often display this with the other requested drive information
4. Provide the address of where the replacement drive will need to be shipped to.
If the drive is ineligible for replacement, in most instances, it can be replaced by a drive that is of an equal or lager capacity. If the replacement has a larger capacity, the excess storage space will not be utilized.
