Hardware :: Looking For Good Hard Disks To Use In Raid 1 Array
Jan 13, 2010
I'm looking to stock my SuperMicro P8SCi with two 1-2 TB SATA hard discs, for running backups and web hosting. There are reviews of certain disks stating that the low-power disks will get kicked out of the Raid due to their slow response time, and it also appears that there have been quality problems with these newer disks, as if the race to size has lowered their reliability.
Can someone recommend a good brand and specific disks that you've had experience with? I'd rather not need to replace these after putting them in, but I also don't want to pay significantly more for an illusion of quality.
I have a 7-drive RAID array on my computer. Recently, my SATA PCI card died, and after going through multiple cards to find another one that worked with linux, I now can't assemble the array. The drives are no longer in the order they were in previously, and mdadm can't seem to reassemble the array. It says there are 2 drives and one spare, even though there were 7 drives and no spares. I know for a fact that none of the drives are corrupted, because one of the non-working RAID cards was still able to mount the array for a short period, but would loose the drives during resyncing (I later found out that the chipset on the card was had extremely limited linux support). I have tried running "mdadm --assemble --scan" and after the drive is partially assembled, I add the other drives with "mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sdc1". These both return errors and will not complete on the new raid card.
Code: aaron-desktop:~ aaron$ sudo mdadm --assemble /dev/md0 mdadm: /dev/md0 assembled from 2 drives and 1 spare - not enough to start the array.
I'm trying to do some RAID managing with mdadm. I would like to sync my spare disk and then remove it from the array for making a backup out of it with dd command (the best way i can think of to get the current image of the whole system as it can't be done using the active RAID as source, because is constantly in use and changing). So, I have RAID1 array with 1 spare and 2 active disks (configuration listed below). Now I would like to force spare to sync and then remove it from array, although not faulty.
However, mdadm man page states: "Devices can only be removed from an array if they are not in active use. i.e. that must be spares or failed devices. To remove an active device, it must be marked as faulty first."
So, I'd have to mark a disk as faulty (which it is not) to be able to remove it from array. There seems to be several people reporting that they can't remove this faulty flag accidentally given to a drive. And mdadm does not give direct for such operation. Isn't there a way I could remove and add disks whenever feeling like it?? One way would be open the cover and physically remove the disk. I'm not taking the risk, though. System is almost always in use, so there is not much chance for me to power off for temporary disk removal.
RAID CONFIGURATION: ~# mdadm --detail /dev/md0 /dev/md0: Version : 00.90.03 Creation Time : Fri Aug 4 17:38:26 2006 Raid Level : raid1 Array Size : 238950720 (227.88 GiB 244.69 GB)
I wanted to merge my 1TB disks into and RAID 5 array, 4 of them in RAID 5 is above 2Terabytes limit of msdos partition tables which grub2 can boot from, so I decided to start up the system from scratch, by building it on GPT partitions, but seems grub2 won't boot from GPT partition because it drops to grub rescue and I can't really do anything from there.
I have a home server running Openfiler 2.3 x64 with 4x1.5TB software RAID 5 array (more details on the hardware and OS later). All was working well for two years until several weeks ago, the array failed with two faulty disks at the same time. Well, those thing could happen, especially if one is using desktop-grade disks instead of enterprise-grade ones (way too expensive for a home server). Since is was most likely a false positive, I've reassembled the array:
Code:
# mdadm --assemble --force /dev/md0 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1 mdadm: forcing event count in /dev/sdb1(0) from 110 upto 122 mdadm: forcing event count in /dev/sdc1(1) from 110 upto 122
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Right. Once is just a coincident but twice in such a sort period of time means that something is wrong. I've reassembled the array and again, all the files were intact. But now was the time to think seriously about backing up my array, so I've ordered a 2TB external disk and in the meantime kept the server off. When I got the external drive, I hooked it up to my Windows desktop, turned on the server and started copying the files. After about 10 minutes two drives failed again. I've reassembled, rebooted and started copying again, but after a few MBs, the copy process reported a problem - the files were unavailable. A few retried and the process resumed, but a few MBs later it had to stop again, for the same reason. Several more stops like those and two disks failed again. Looking at the /var/log/messages file, I found a lot of error like these:
Quote:
Apr 12 22:44:02 NAS kernel: [77047.467686] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33 Apr 12 22:44:02 NAS kernel: [77047.523714] ata1.01: configured for UDMA/133 Apr 12 22:44:02 NAS kernel: [77047.523727] ata1: EH complete
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The motherboard is Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L based on Intel's G31 chipset, the 4 disks are Seagate 7200.11 (with a version of a firmware that doesn't cause frequent data corruption).
I have been running a server with an increasingly large md array and always been plagued with intermittent disk faults. For a long time, I've attributed those to either temperature or power glitches. I had just embarked on a quest to a) lower case and drive temperature. They were running between 43 and 47C, sometimes peaking at 52C, so I've added more case fan power and made sure the drive cage was in the flow (it has it's own fan, too). Also, I've upgraded my power supply and made very sure that all the connectors are good. The array currently is a RAID6 with 5 Seagate 1,5TB drives.
When everything seemed to be working fine, I looked at my SMART logs and found that two of my drives (both well over 14000 operating hours) were showing uncorrectible bad blocks. Since it's RAID6, I figured, I couldn't do much harm, ran a badblocks test on it, zeroed the blocks that were reported bad, figuring the drive defect management would remap them to a good part of the disk and zeroed the superblock. I then added it back to the pack and the resync started. At around 50%, a second drive decided to go and shortly thereafter a third. Now, with two out of five drives, RAID6 will fail. Fine. At least, no data will be written to it anymore, however, now I cannot reassemble the array anymore.
Whenever I try I get this: Code: mdadm --assemble --scan mdadm: /dev/md1 assembled from 2 drives and 2 spares - not enough to start the array
Which is not fine. I'm sure that three devices are fine (normally, a failed device would just rejoin the array, skipping most of the resync by way of the bitmap) so I should be able to reassemble the array with the two good ones and the one that failed last, then add the one that failed during the resync and finally re-add the original offender. However, I have no idea how to get them out of the "(S)" state.
Alright, I have this issue on both SystemRescueCD and Debian Squeeze. I have an ASUS P5Q Turbo board that supports hardware RAID. If I configure an array and then start the Linux installer or boot the rescue CD, I get /dev/sda and /dev/sdb instead of an array. What gives? I need to start installing within the hour so I am desperate for an answer!
Using a fresh copy of server 10.04 im trying to simulate a failed raid array on a pair of 2tb disks. Here is the procedure i have been following so far:
- Remove the dead disk partitions from each of the raid 1 arrays (substitute the correct md devices and partitions) - mdadm /dev/md0 -r /dev/sdb2 - mdadm /dev/md1 -r /dev/sdb3
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I get an error here that sfdisk does not support gpt (guid partition table). I thought sfdisk did support gpt? It says to use parted, but i cant find a command that copies a partition table over from another disk in parted documentation. Any suggestions? I suppose i could make the partitions manually, but im writing a procedure for people who arent that technical and i need it to be simple enough to be run in my absence. manually building the partitions would be too hard for them.
I have a used but good harddrive which I'd like to use as a replacement for a removed harddrive in existing raid1 array. mdadm --detail /dev/md00 0 0 -1 removed1 8 17 1 active sync /dev/sdb1I thought I needed to mark the removed drive as failed but I cannot get mdadm set it to "failed". I issue mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --fail /dev/sda1But mdadm response is:mdadm: hot remove failed for /dev/sda1: no such device or addressI thought I must mark the failed drive as "failed" to prevent raid1 from trying to mirror in wrong direction when I install my used-but-good disk. I want to reformat the good used drive first right? I believe I must prevent raid array from automatically try to mirror in the wrong direction.
I would like to mirror some of my partitions (i.e. /home) with a software RAID. My primary harddisk is a Western Digital WD20EARS with Advanced Factor (4kB Sectors). The secondary disk is a Samsung HD103UJ with old sector-style (512B). Is it possible to set up a RAID 1 containing a partition with advanced factor an a partition with old sector-style or do both partitions have do be in the same sctor-style?
I want to make a RAID5 array with 4 2TB hard drives. One of the drives is full of data so I will need to start with a 3 disks and then once I copy the data from the 4th onto the array, I will then add the 4th drive. This will be my first experience with RAID. I've spent a few hours searching for info but most of what I have found is a bit over my head.
I had a couple of IDE hard disks that had previously been set up as a RAID1 array.I wanted to re-format and use them as separate independent hard disks but Ubuntu reported that they were part of a RAID array.This is how I removed that RAID metadata from the drives.With both drives connected I booted up Ubuntu 10.10 Live CD.
I checked the device names via System, Administration, Disk Utility - they were listed as /dev/sda and /dev/sdbI also noted that there was an extra device with name of /dev/md-0 which was the RAID array.Then I rebooted the PC, and checked the device names via System, Administration, Disk Utility - no more /dev/md-0 and the two drives no longer showed as part of a RAID array.
What is the best way to install Windows and Linux on two-hard-disk array? In fakeraid there are no problems in Win, but linux installation is almost impossible (i've tried unsuccessfully...). In software raid it would be impossible to share files between win and linux? And finally hardware raid is possible, but cheap controllers have low performance. Is there any other way (apart from spending a lot of $$ for adaptec controller) ?
I'm renting a dedicated server with a company that claims that the server has 2 hard drives in a software RAID 1 array, but I need to make sure that the server really has the 2 HDD, and the size of the 2nd drive... how to do that ?? system is Centos 5.3
I'm about to install Ubuntu on two 250-gigabyte hard drives in a RAID 1 array, but I'm confused about how to partition my hard drives. How much space should I give to each partition? How many partitions should I create and where should I mount them? (I should mention that Ubuntu will be the only OS on this array.)
I have a NETGEAR ReadyNAS NV+ with four 1TB drives in a RAID-5 array. This is our primary file storage. This has previously been backed up to a hardware RAID-0 array directly attached to our Windows server. The capacity of this backup array is no longer sufficient. So the plan was, take a bunch of 200GB to 320GB drives (And a 750) I had kicking around, chuck them in a couple of old SCSI drive enclosures I have collecting dust, attach them via IDA/SATA-to-USB adaptors to a USB hub, attach that to the server, create a JBOD array spanning the disks, and back up the NAS to that. Performance is not an issue as this is just to be used for backup, with the idea being as near to zero cost as possible (Spend so far = NZ$100�ish).
The first hurdle I struck was Windows not supporting Dynamic Disks on USB drives (Required to create a spanned volume). At first I resisted using another machine (i.e. a machine running Ubuntu) as I didn't want to dedicate a piece of hardware to backing up the NAS. I then decided it would be acceptable to do this via a VM, which is what I've done.So I have 10.04 running under VMWare Server 2.0.2 under Windows Server 2008 R2. The disks are all presented to the VM. I wasn't sure if I was going to end up creating the array under LVM or something else, but I noticed Disk Utility has an option to create an array, so I tried that. When I add two 250GB drives, the array size is 500GB. When I then add a 160GB drive, the array size drops to 480GB. Huh? If I keep adding disks (Regardless of order) the final array size comes out at 1.8 TB, as per the attached screenshot. Now with the following drives, I expected something more like:
I have two internal harddisk. Harddisk 1 has ubuntu, fedora installed and harddisk 2 has ubuntu installed. I normally connect either one, and use it. How can i always keep connect both harddisks, and at the start, select from which harddisk to boot? Or it's not possible?
I've tried to install Fedora 11, both 32 and 64 on my main machine.It could not install as it stops on the first install window. I've already filed a bug but really haven't seen any feed back yet.The bug has something to do with Anaconda and the Raid array but I really can't tell.
I have an Intel Board (see signature). I am running intel raid software under W7 currently.It works fine. But, I'm wondering, when I attempt to install F!!, is my current raid set-up causing problems? Do I need to get rid of the intel raid software and use a Fedor/Linux raid program to manage the raid array??
when I start my raid5, only 2 disks of 3 are active on md0. The 3rd disk is inactive on md_d0.When I do mdadm --examine, the two active disks report 2 active, 2 working, 1 failed. the inactive disk resports 3 active, 3 working, 0 failed.
I just experienced a HDD failure and while reorganizing the drives inthis machine I realized the benefits of UUID instead of /dev/sdX nomenclature. I am trying to determine the UUID of 2 disks that are assembled in a RAID1 array. right now they are /dev/sde & /dev/sdf with each only one partition. I tried ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid but I get only the UUID of other disks, not the ones currently ID'd as sde & sdf. my mdadm.conf assembles several raid arrays all by UUID, but somehow, I cant recall how I got the UUIDs of the other HDDs at first...
I have built a couple RAID's, but I'm uncertain of how I should format the partitions of the raid. Should I format partitions on each disk, and then add them to a raid, or should I create a raid on unformated disks and then format the raid as a partition? Does it matter, and are there performance/reliability issues? I'm creating a RAID-5 using 3 SATA disks on RHEL for user data area.
I have implemented LVM to expand the /home partition. I would like to add 2 more disks to the system and use raid 5 for those two disks plus the disk used for /home. Is this possible? If so, do I use type fd for the two new disks and use type 8e for the existing LVM /home disk? Or do I use type fd for all of the raid disks?
I use slackware 13.1 and I want to create a RAID level 5 with 3 disks. Should I use entire device or a partition? What the advantages and disadvantages of each case? If a use the entire device, should I create any partition on it or leave all space as free?
I just bought two 320GB SATA drives and would like to install F11 with software RAID 1 on them. I read an article which explains how to install RAID 1, but it used 3 disks: one for OS and two clones. Do I really need a third disk to install RAID 1 configuration? If 2 disks is enough, then should I select "Clone a drive to create a RAID device" during F11 installation as explained here?
I've got 3 extra disks on OpenSuse 11.2 - all the same size. I've created a partition on all of them as type 0xFD. If I then try and add raid in yast I get "There are not enough suitable unused devices to create a RAID."
I just had a whole 2TB Software RAID 5 blow up on me. I rebooted my server, which i hardly ever do and low and behold i loose one of my raid 5 sets. It seems like two of the disks are not showing up properly.. What i mean by that is the OS picks up the disks, but it doesnt see the partitions.
I ran smartct -l on all the drives in question and they're all in good working order.
Is there some sort of repair tool i can use to scan the busted drives (since they're available) to fix any possible errors that might be present.
Here is what the "good" drive looks like when i use sfdisk:
Quote:
sudo sfdisk -l /dev/sda Disk /dev/sda: 121601 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System /dev/sda1 0+ 121600 121601- 976760001 83 Linux /dev/sda2 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
I'm trying to to determine the speed of my Raid Hot swappable disks. I need to determine if each disk is ether 10,000 rpm or 15000 rpm. I know that each disk is 72GB in size: I have tried to find this information ind/proc/diskinfo and using dmesg but no luck.
Basically, I installed Debian Lenny creating two RAID 1 devices on two 1 TB disks during installation. /dev/md0 for swap and /dev/md1 for "/" I did not pay much attention, but it seemed to work fine at start - both raid devices were up early during boot, I think. After that I upgraded the system into testing which involved at least upgrading GRUB to 1.97 and compiling & installing a new 2.6.34 kernel ( udev refused to upgrade with old kernel ) Last part was a bit messy, but in the end I have it working.
Let me describe my HDDs setup: when I do "sudo fdisk -l" it gives me sda1,sda2 raid partitions on sda, sdb1,sdb2 raid partitions on sdb which are my two 1 TB drives and sdc1, sdc2, sdc5 for my 3rd 160GB drive I actually boot from ( I mean GRUB is installed there, and its chosen as boot device in BIOS ). The problem is that raid starts degraded every time ( starts with 1 out of 2 devices ). When doing " cat /proc/mdstat " I get "U_" statuses and 2nd devices is "removed" on both md devices.
I can successfully run partx -a sdb, which gives me sdb1 and sdb2 and then I readd those to raid devices using " sudo mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sda1 ". After I read devices it syncs the disks and after about 3 hours I see fine status in mdstat. However when I reboot, it again starts with degraded array. I get a feeling that after I read the disk and sync array I need to update some configuration somewhere, I tried to " sudo mdadm --examine --scan " but its output is no different from my current /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf even after I readd the disks and sync.
Consider the following setup: Ubuntu system installed on a separate SSD for speed. An ubuntu software RAID array consisting of X number of physical HDD's for storage (RAID6 or RAID10). RAID setup is done during system install. If I suffer a total crash of the SSD and loose my system, will I be able to, using a new system disk, "reconnect" to the RAID array even if the "mothersystem" of the software RAID is lost? If yes, are there any particular config- or system files I need to backup to be able to rescue the array or will it just be recognized "out-of-the-box" when reinstalling ubuntu?
