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1 Preliminary Note: GPT Partitions

This document provides steps to replace a failed hard drive in a Linux software RAID1 array without losing data. It involves: 1) Marking the partitions on the failed drive as failed and removing them from the RAID arrays. 2) Shutting down and replacing the physical failed drive. 3) Recreating the partitions on the new drive to match the existing drive. 4) Adding the partitions back to their respective RAID arrays to start the synchronization process and rebuild the arrays.

Uploaded by

Ajit
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© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
34 views

1 Preliminary Note: GPT Partitions

This document provides steps to replace a failed hard drive in a Linux software RAID1 array without losing data. It involves: 1) Marking the partitions on the failed drive as failed and removing them from the RAID arrays. 2) Shutting down and replacing the physical failed drive. 3) Recreating the partitions on the new drive to match the existing drive. 4) Adding the partitions back to their respective RAID arrays to start the synchronization process and rebuild the arrays.

Uploaded by

Ajit
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Replacing A Failed Hard Drive In A Software RAID1 Array.

This guide shows how to


remove a failed hard drive from a Linux RAID1 array (software RAID), and how to add
a new hard disk to the RAID1 array without losing data.
NOTE: There is a new version of this tutorial available that uses gdisk instead of
sfdisk to support GPT partitions.

1 Preliminary Note

In this example I have two hard drives, /dev/sda and /dev/sdb, with the
partitions /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 as well as /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb2.
/dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 make up the RAID1 array /dev/md0.
/dev/sda2 and /dev/sdb2 make up the RAID1 array /dev/md1.
/dev/sda1 + /dev/sdb1 = /dev/md0
/dev/sda2 + /dev/sdb2 = /dev/md1

/dev/sdb has failed, and we want to replace it.

2 How Do I Tell If A Hard Disk Has Failed?

If a disk has failed, you will probably find a lot of error messages in the log files,
e.g. /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog.
You can also run

cat /proc/mdstat

and instead of the string [UU] you will see [U_] if you have a degraded RAID1 array.

3 Removing The Failed Disk

To remove /dev/sdb, we will mark /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb2 as failed and remove them
from their respective RAID arrays (/dev/md0 and /dev/md1).
First we mark /dev/sdb1 as failed:

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --fail /dev/sdb1

The output of

cat /proc/mdstat

should look like this:


server1:~# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] [raid4] [raid6
] [raid10]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[2](F)
24418688 blocks [2/1] [U_]
md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]
24418688 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>

Then we remove /dev/sdb1 from /dev/md0:

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --remove /dev/sdb1

The output should be like this:


server1:~# mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --remove /dev/sdb1
mdadm: hot removed /dev/sdb1

And

cat /proc/mdstat

should show this:


server1:~# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] [raid4] [raid6
] [raid10]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0]
24418688 blocks [2/1] [U_]

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]


24418688 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>

Now we do the same steps again for /dev/sdb2 (which is part of /dev/md1):

mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --fail /dev/sdb2


cat /proc/mdstat

server1:~# cat /proc/mdstat


Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] [raid4] [raid6
] [raid10]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0]
24418688 blocks [2/1] [U_]

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[2](F)


24418688 blocks [2/1] [U_]

unused devices: <none>


mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --remove /dev/sdb2

server1:~# mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --remove /dev/sdb2


mdadm: hot removed /dev/sdb2

cat /proc/mdstat

server1:~# cat /proc/mdstat


Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] [raid4] [raid6
] [raid10]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0]
24418688 blocks [2/1] [U_]

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0]


24418688 blocks [2/1] [U_]

unused devices: <none>

Then power down the system:

shutdown -h now

and replace the old /dev/sdb hard drive with a new one (it must have at least the same
size as the old one - if it's only a few MB smaller than the old one then rebuilding the
arrays will fail).

4 Adding The New Hard Disk

After you have changed the hard disk /dev/sdb, boot the system.
The first thing we must do now is to create the exact same partitioning as on /dev/sda.
We can do this with one simple command:

sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdb

You can run

fdisk -l

to check if both hard drives have the same partitioning now.


Next we add /dev/sdb1 to /dev/md0 and /dev/sdb2 to /dev/md1:

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --add /dev/sdb1


server1:~# mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --add /dev/sdb1
mdadm: re-added /dev/sdb1

mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --add /dev/sdb2

server1:~# mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --add /dev/sdb2


mdadm: re-added /dev/sdb2

Now both arays (/dev/md0 and /dev/md1) will be synchronized. Run

cat /proc/mdstat

to see when it's finished.


During the synchronization the output will look like this:
server1:~# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] [raid4] [raid6
] [raid10]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
24418688 blocks [2/1] [U_]
[=>...................] recovery = 9.9% (2423168/24418688) finish=2.8
min speed=127535K/sec

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]


24418688 blocks [2/1] [U_]
[=>...................] recovery = 6.4% (1572096/24418688) finish=1.9
min speed=196512K/sec

unused devices: <none>

When the synchronization is finished, the output will look like this:
server1:~# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] [raid4] [raid6
] [raid10]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
24418688 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]


24418688 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>

That's it, you have successfully replaced /dev/sdb!

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