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Adding Drives to 3U

USAMP411

Active member
Good morning everyone!

I am in the process of acquiring 4 new drives (6TB) for my 3U server. I currently only have 2 empty slots, so I will be replacing 2 of the current drives. I currently have a mix of different sized drives in there and really don't have any idea which are which. I am guessing my only option is to shut the server down and pull them out one by one and remove the 2 smallest drives to be replaced by the 6tb? I know one of the new drives will become my backup, so I should be adding 18TB minus whatever the capacity of the 2 drives being removed. Sound right?

Any other considerations before the new drives arrive?

Thanks!
 
Old thread but perhaps helps explain.

 
Old thread but perhaps helps explain.


Thanks Mark!

So, if I understand (which I highly doubt), as I pull each drive out to check the size, will it then start trying to rebuild each one? With 2 open slots, my intention was to add 2 of the 6TB first and let the hot spare get moved to one of the 6TB. But I still need to figure out which 2 drives to replace with the other 6TB. I can't believe that I honestly have no idea what size my drives are. Is there not a way to view drive size, much like on a windows pc you can view each drive?
 
Thanks Mark!

So, if I understand (which I highly doubt), as I pull each drive out to check the size, will it then start trying to rebuild each one? With 2 open slots, my intention was to add 2 of the 6TB first and let the hot spare get moved to one of the 6TB. But I still need to figure out which 2 drives to replace with the other 6TB. I can't believe that I honestly have no idea what size my drives are. Is there not a way to view drive size, much like on a windows pc you can view each drive?

As you suggested in your initial post if you turn off your 3U you can then pull out each drive to check its size. Just make sure to put them all back in before turning on the 3U and nothing will rebuild.

Dealers also may have access to your machine through their extranet to tell you which drive is in which bay (but this has proven to be inaccurate in my own specific system)
 
Thanks Mark!

So, if I understand (which I highly doubt), as I pull each drive out to check the size, will it then start trying to rebuild each one? With 2 open slots, my intention was to add 2 of the 6TB first and let the hot spare get moved to one of the 6TB. But I still need to figure out which 2 drives to replace with the other 6TB. I can't believe that I honestly have no idea what size my drives are. Is there not a way to view drive size, much like on a windows pc you can view each drive?


Call me if you can, I sent you a PM with my number. (Also, many drives have their size printed on the front of the drive at the bottom, it is light print so sometimes shining a flashlight on it makes it easier to read. For example, a 4TB will display the number 4000.)

Jim
 
And just to make sure there's no confusion, do not pull the smallest two drives at one time or you will lose everything on the server.

You need to swap one, let it fully rebuild, then swap the second.
 
And just to make sure there's no confusion, do not pull the smallest two drives at one time or you will lose everything on the server.

You need to swap one, let it fully rebuild, then swap the second.

Thank you Kevin!! Jim and I discussed that earlier. Appreciate that very important point!!
 
To update on the progress.

I had a 3U with 2 empty slots. The seller sent all 4 6TB drives to K to be reinitialized (or whatever they call it).

Received the 4 drives, placed 2 in the blank slots and they were immediately recognized. I then removed ONE 1tb drive and replaced it with a 6tb drive. It took about 29 hours to "repair" the drive and everything showed that I now had 25TB total capacity. Replaced another 1TB drive and it showed that it was rebuilding the drive, just as the third drive had. HOWEVER, I noticed that when I inserted the 3rd drive, it immediately showed the increase in capacity. When adding the fourth drive, it took 1TB away from my capacity. So, I decided to wait to see what happens after the rebuild. In the meantime, I received an email from K saying Drive failure!!!

I let the rebuild run it's course and it just finished, but still shows the loss of 1tb total capacity, not the 5tb increase I was supposed to see. I will contact the seller separately, and likely have to call K, but just curious, would you recommend that I remove the apparently failed 6tb drive and replace it with the original 1TB? Or should I just replace it with a blank?

Thanks!!
 
Stop! Don't remove or replace any drives. You will just make it worse.

The email about a failed drive could have just been from removing the old 1TB. Did you log into the web interface? If it still thinks that a drive is failed, you should see a message to that effect.

Do you know what size drives you had before? Just because you removed a 1TB drive and added a 6TB drive doesn't mean that you will gain 5TB of capacity. It depends on the size of your existing drives.

If you have all blue lights on the drives (13 solid, 1 flashing), and there are no warnings in the web interface, everything should be working correctly.
 
Stop! Don't remove or replace any drives. You will just make it worse.

The email about a failed drive could have just been from removing the old 1TB. Did you log into the web interface? If it still thinks that a drive is failed, you should see a message to that effect.

Do you know what size drives you had before? Just because you removed a 1TB drive and added a 6TB drive doesn't mean that you will gain 5TB of capacity. It depends on the size of your existing drives.

If you have all blue lights on the drives (13 solid, 1 flashing), and there are no warnings in the web interface, everything should be working correctly.

NO message at all, but definitely 1TB less than I had PRIOR to replacing the 1TB with a 6TB. I get that I may not truly gain 5tb, but surely shouldn't have lost 1 tb by adding 5 additional!

Actually, the newest drive does not have any lights. And I noticed that the drive doesn't seem to sit properly. The old drive didn't quite seem as far in as the others when I took it out but was blue. Any benefit to removing a different 1tb and again trying to replace it with this 6tb?

THanks!
 
Do Not Remove or replace anything.

Since the rebuild is complete, the old drive is no longer valid. So you cannot just pop that drive back in.

If you don’t see any error message and the 3U is blue, then there is no problem.

what was your capacity before installing any of the new drives and what is the capacity now?
 
I wouldn't do anything else without direction from Kaleidescape support.

You definitely shouldn't have gone down in size. Even if you removed the 1TB and the new 6TB wasn't recognized, it should have added the hot spare to the array and you wouldn't have lost space.

As mentioned above, the 1TB drive is no longer usable, so don't try to put it back in.

If you have a drive with no light, it probably isn't recognized as part of the array, so it might just need reseated, but I still wouldn't do anything until K support.
 
Actually, now that I think about it, you might have hit the unusual case where that 1TB drive never had anything written to it, so it was just removed from the capacity, and the 6TB drive hasn't been recognized yet.

Still, it's best to contact Kaleidescape support, just to be safe.
 
Actually, now that I think about it, you might have hit the unusual case where that 1TB drive never had anything written to it, so it was just removed from the capacity, and the 6TB drive hasn't been recognized yet.

Still, it's best to contact Kaleidescape support, just to be safe.

THANKS!!
 
Actually, the newest drive does not have any lights. And I noticed that the drive doesn't seem to sit properly. The old drive didn't quite seem as far in as the others when I took it out but was blue. Any benefit to removing a different 1tb and again trying to replace it with this 6tb?

THanks!
Sounds to me like the drive is not fully inserted into the slot and so it's not part of the file system. There should be a light on the front of the drive:
Solid Blue: part of the file system; healthy
Blinking Blue: hotspare
Amber: Failed or otherwise not part of the file system.

Take a look at the browser interface for your system (http://<server IP>). If there is a problem with your file system, there will be a warning message in Red text at the top of the page. For example:
FileSystemWarning.jpg
Also, take a look at the System Status panel to ensure that is not reporting a failed/missing drive and that there are no drives rebuilding:
SystemStatus.jpg
If you see any warnings about failed or missing drives, stop. Don't remove or insert any more drives. Contact Support and they will be able to guide you on next steps.

If you don't see any messages in those two places, then your file system is likely healthy. At that point, you should be able to remove the 6TB drive that isn't active. Take a look in the empty slot to verify that there are no obstructions. Examine the disk cartridge to ensure that there are no protruding screws or other obstructions and that the locking cam moves in an out freely when you press the Kaleidescape jewel on the front panel of the cartridge. Then try reinserting the drive. It should positively lock into the slot and you should hear the drive heads unpark and the disk platters spin up. Within a few moments, the cartridge lights should activate and the blue light should come on. If the drive is rejected for some reason, the amber light on the cartridge will light up.

If you get a solid blue light, you should be good to go. If you see amber contact Support.
 
@J.Green

Thank you sir!! The problem was it was not even seating right into the bay so it was not registering. Took me a while of pushing it in and out and messing with the locking cam but it finally took and now I am up to 30TB! All Blue lights!!

Thanks also to all who gave help. This really is a great community!!
 
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