Replacing RAID 1 configured SSD on Dell R630 without shutting it down but with PERC H730P Mini attached

Hello,

The Dell R630 with PERC H730P Mini does support hot-swapping, so you can replace the drives without shutting down the server.

Mark the Drive as Offline: Use the PERC BIOS or Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) to mark the first SSD as offline.

Physically remove the offline SSD and replace it with the new SSD.

Rebuild the RAID Array: The RAID controller should automatically start rebuilding the array on the new SSD. Monitor the rebuild process using OMSA or the PERC BIOS.

Repeat for the Second Drive: Once the rebuild is complete, repeat the process for the second SSD.

Capacity Considerations: Since you are replacing the SSDs with ones of the same capacity (1TB), there should be no issues with capacity mismatch2.

Monitor the Process: Keep an eye on the rebuild process to ensure there are no errors. This can be done through the PERC BIOS or OMSA.

By following these steps, you should be able to replace the SSDs in your RAID 1 configuration without shutting down your server. If you encounter any issues, consulting Dell's support or documentation specific to your server model and RAID controller can be helpful.

If you have any more questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask!

We have tried accesing OMSA using idrac credentials however it failed and shows the error as below. And how can we get access to the PERC BIOS without shutting down the server. We're currently on idrac 8 for the R630 server.

Hi,

iDRAC 8 do not have the capability to offline the drive, unless to use RACADM. https://dell.to/40HZ1c3 page 142.

About the error you had in OMSA, this might be due to WSMAN services. Have you checked if WSMAN service is running, or to restart the WSMAS service by issuing command : # /etc/init.d/wsman restart

What is the version of OMSA that is running on the server? https://dell.to/4aJDhBe

We were using OMSA Version 11.1.0.0 but it was intalled in the client PC tho. So, we also have to also get it installed in the esxi server?

Hi,

According to this video, OMSA need to be installed on both systems: https://dell.to/3CFI5eq

OMSA compatibility matrix: https://dell.to/3WNcMVW

But curious, are you facing any hardware failure that needed to replace the drive?

I see, I'll give that a shot first. As of now, we're not facing any failures but we wanna upgrade to ssd's that can support endurance monitoring. The current ones doesnt support endurance monitoring

My test with Dell R620XD with Idrac7 and esxi 6.5 seems promising. Tho it requires 1 reboot for the OMSA installation. It comes with Replace Member Disk feature which allows for disk replacement. I'll get back to this post once I did it on the production server. But bottom line is, I guess its not possible to replace disk without any reboot or downtime.

I have performed the ssd swap on the actual production server running R630 and Esxi 6.7. It actually doesnt need reboot for some reason and the command ``` esxcli software vib install -v /datastore/directory/ --no-sig-check ``` must be used to overcome the cert issue during OMSA installation. All is done now and thank you. Hope it helps anyone facing same issue.