Hot-swapping the hard drives when the RAID crashes

“No server downtime when you need to replace the RAID drives”

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Procedure of hot-swapping the hard drives when a RAID crashes

RAID 5 disk mirroring provides highly-secure data protection. You can use three hard drives of the same capacity to create a RAID 5 array. RAID 5 creates an exact copy of data on the member drives and protects data against a single drive failing. The usable capacity in RAID 5 is the size of the smallest member drive. It is particularly suitable for home or business use in saving important data.

Logical volume status when the RAID operates normally

When the RAID volume operates normally, the status is shown as Ready under “Storage/Snapshots” > “Manage” > “RAID Group of Storage Pools”.

When a drive fails, follow the steps below to check the drive status:

  • The Turbo NAS will beep for 1.5 sec twice when the drive fails.
  • The Status LED will continuously flash red.
  • Check the RAID Group in the Storage Pool section. The volume status will be in Degraded mode.

You can check the System Logs for error and warning messages regarding drive failures and disk volumes being in degraded mode.

You can configure your Turbo NAS to send you alert emails by configuring the alert notifications. For these settings, please refer to the System Settings/ Alert Notification section in the user manual.

Install a new drive to rebuild RAID 5 by hot swapping

Please follow the below steps to hot swap the failed hard drive:

  • Prepare a new hard drive to rebuild the RAID configuration. The new drive should have at least the same capacity as the failed drive.
  • Install the drive into the Turbo NAS. It will beep for 1.5 seconds twice. The Status LED will alternate between flashing red and green.
  • If you check the RAID Group in the Storage Pool section, the status will be Rebuilding and the progress will be shown.
  • When the rebuilding is completed, the Status LED will be in green and the volume status will change to Ready. RAID 5 mirroring protection is now active.
  • You can check the disk volume information in the System Logs.
Important: Do not install a new drive when the system is not in degraded mode, otherwise you may encounter unexpected system failures.

Source :
https://www.qnap.com/en/how-to/tutorial/article/hot-swapping-the-hard-drives-when-the-raid-crashes

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