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Actual Drive Failure VS Kaleidescapes Spec

B

beevbeer1

Member
Kaleidescape posts on their site a failure rate of only 1-2 percent per year as far as hard drives go. I have 3 systems that I have been monitoring, all under 3 years old one has had 6 and the other two have had 5 drives fail in this time.

Is anyone else seeing losses like this as I am perplexed.The three servers are in three separate environments with the only common aspect the fact that they are 3U servers.

Anyone else experiencing failures of this magnitude (30-40%) in three years.

thanks
 
When you divide the total number of systems in the field by the number of failures in your particular system, the failure rate is 1 to 2 percent.:D

Seriously, your experience is way outside the norm of any systems I monitor, but perhaps my friends/clients have been lucky.


Jim
 
I have not had that kind of drive failure rate and none of my clients have come anywhere close to that either.
 
I am not even close to a 1% failure rate.

A 30-40% failure rate! I hope that the root cause of such an astonishingly high failure rate is established.
 
4 drives in one server or 4 drives total as im up to 16 in 3 servers in that time frame...luck of the Irish my arse!

Are you all monitoring a 3U or 5U server.I think the hot spare is great but the cramped quarters may be adding to the failure rate.
 
beevbeer1 said:
...............

Are you all monitoring a 3U or 5U server.I think the hot spare is great but the cramped quarters may be adding to the failure rate.
Click to expand...


The HS has no affect on the fail rate. The Server is designed to handle the "cramped" space just fine. That brings up a question. Do you have disks in every slot (either content or the plastic fill disks)? I hope so, that's required for proper ventilation. I ask because I had a client that removed all the fill disks thinking this would aid in heat dissipation and it has the opposite affect.

The fail rate among the dozens of systems I monitor is actually less than 1%.


Jim
 
beevbeer1 said:
4 drives in one server or 4 drives total as im up to 16 in 3 servers in that time frame...luck of the Irish my arse!

Are you all monitoring a 3U or 5U server.I think the hot spare is great but the cramped quarters may be adding to the failure rate.
Click to expand...

Same server... 16, jeesh,I thought I had it bad
 
all slots are full and units are well ventilated, one owner is buying 2tb hard drives like they are light bulbs waiting until the next one blows.

I have talked to several people that have several clients that they are monitoring and have not seen anything close to these numbers would like to be able to pinpoint the common issue with these systems
 
beevbeer1 said:
all slots are full and units are well ventilated, one owner is buying 2tb hard drives like they are light bulbs waiting until the next one blows.

I have talked to several people that have several clients that they are monitoring and have not seen anything close to these numbers would like to be able to pinpoint the common issue with these systems
Click to expand...


This really is waaaaay outside the norm. I'm wondering if somehow the Server is affecting the drives. The answer should be "no," if ventilation is good and the temp patterns for the Server are within normal limits, but still, those numbers make no sense. I assume K is involved in trying to find an answer??


Jim
 
The 3 servers are part of 3 separate systems.That is why I am amazed that nobody else is seeing numbers anywhere close to what I am seeing. Two are on yachts and perhaps are more prone to vibration and voltage anomalies even though they are ups protected. The other is in a rack in the clients home.Just glad to see that this is not the norm for Kaleidescape.I am in the process of changing out one failed server for a new one with new hard drives and will see if this pattern is repeated.
 
I have no client's with yachts so have no experience with Servers/drives under those conditions, but still sounds crazy.

In any case, good luck, hope this resolves for you soon.

Jim
 
I've had probably close to 150,000 in-service-hours of reliable service from the 750GB drives, never had a single failure...
The only issue I've had with disc drives is when they've been shipped incorrectly packed and they arrive DOA due shipping damage (3 write-offs).
 
I think I've had 1 750 GB drive fail over a few years of service in a new style server. I had a few drives fail in the old 5U server over the course of I think it was a year or two. Recently I've had 3 1TB drives fail. This is out of 3 servers. One server has 2TB drives and the others have 1TB.

Ive had a K scape system since early 2007. So thats over 4 years. Time is a funny thing. Its easy to have it feel long or short. When the drives fail, time feels short. My take is these are mechanical devices and while every effort is made to insure they never fail, they will eventually fail. They all will. Its a matter of having a robust backup system- K does this with the HS drive and their RAID setup which insure if you have a failure you still have some protection and can keep working. The older 5U server didn't have the HS and if you lost a drive you would be advised to shut down and wait for the replacement. Which, in my experience, the replacement is usually quick to arrive. And I've never had the shipping issue but like I said, these are mechanical devices, and oh yeah, they are somewhat fragile. What matters most to me is not that mechanical devices fail, but how a company addresses it.
 
Sounds really odd to me. Only had one disc failure in my system in over two years (5U). Was on a private plane recently that had a 3U and when I asked the Stewardess if they ever had any problems she responded that in two years (in what I imagine is the harshest enviornment possible for these servers) there has never been a problem with the system. I was amazed as I cant imagine turbulance, power cycles, and the general movement of a aircraft is good for a KServer!
 
I can speak to one yacht as well. That's a seriously challenging environment, and no failures in nearly three years.


Jim
 
I chalk it up to randomness. But thats the track record. I also have a 12 bay RAID NAS right next to it and in 18 months Ive had 1 failure and that uses the el cheapo consumer level drives, not the more robust enterprise level ones K uses.
 
I am working with Kaleidescape on this and after talking with their engineers. I am going to send the drives to them to look at. Just after talking another 1TB drive failed again in the one clients home server. I am willing to bet that anyone with multiple failures in the same server is running the seagate 1TB and I think that may be the root cause of the failures I am seeing and Have no faith in them right now especially after doing some research in the online forums.The drives with firmware version mentioned in the seagate forum below are the exact drives that I am seeing fail. I am hoping to replace all the 1TB drives in both systems and hopefully see the reliability that everyone else is experiencing.

Thanks for the input.
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Barrac...ate-Barracuda-ES-2-Firmware-Issues/td-p/22716
 
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