Unity Connection 7: RAID Caveats

lfulgenzi · ‎03-11-2009

Anyone have any comments with regards to this. Does it blow up if I put a disk in there with data on it? I understand if it will be overwritten, which is what I want. Can I simply install it in another system and remove and recreate the partition to make it "blank" ?

From the release notes:

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Replacing Disks in a RAID

Connection supports only replacing a defective disk in a RAID with a blank disk to repair the RAID. Replacing disks in a RAID for any other reason is not supported.

Caution Do not replace a disk in a RAID with a disk that contains data, even if the replacement disk was originally a disk in the same RAID in the same server.

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Tommer Catlin · ‎03-11-2009

Wow, i have not seen this as well. I wonder if it's the same on CUCM....

testeven · ‎03-11-2009

Hi

I believe you can do it, but it's not supported by Cisco of HP.

I think the CAUTION note is so that when the drives are synchronized the one with incorrect or old data is not copied to

the correct/working drive on a working/production server. Usually to avoid customers using another disk to do a backup.

This must be done using DIRT. RAID HW is meant for storage device fault tolerance, not for "manual" application data backup or

restoration.

There have been customers who put the wrong drive back later and make a mess of their system.

HTH

Regards,

Teresa.

Regards, Tere. If you find this post helpful, please rate! :)

lfulgenzi · ‎03-11-2009

Fair enough. We typically did it to save time in the event of a DIRT restore. I think we will have to look at a different ways or minimally a way to "blank" a disk using a spare box before putting it in.

I would hope that the H/W RAID system is smart enough to know that when I stick in a drive it should use the existing disk and replicate that onto the newly inserted disk. However, I can see this happen if people power down their system, stick another drive with data on it and the system comes up with whichever drive had the 'master' config or newer date or whatever.

testeven · ‎03-11-2009

Yeah, it's kind of risky! that's why we don't recommend it or support it hehe :)

Regards, Tere. If you find this post helpful, please rate! :)