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Hot Swap Support?

wpirobotbuilder
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I'm aware of what Hot Swapping is (not hot-plugging, I mean actual hot swap), but I don't know much else about it. Maybe someone can answer a few questions about it:

 

  • Does a given hard drive have to support Hot Swap, or can any drive do it?
  • Do all hardware RAID and HBA controllers support hot swap, or do only some of them?
  • Do motherboard chipsets support hot-swapping?
  • Is there any special software configuration needed to enable hot-swapping?

The reason I ask is that, when I start work on my SAN, I would very much like to not have to power it down or otherwise lose service to replace a failed drive.

 

Much appreciated.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei
Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

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Posted

I'm aware of what Hot Swapping is (not hot-plugging, I mean actual hot swap), but I don't know much else about it. Maybe someone can answer a few questions about it:

 

  • Does a given hard drive have to support Hot Swap, or can any drive do it?
  • Do all hardware RAID and HBA controllers support hot swap, or do only some of them?
  • Do motherboard chipsets support hot-swapping?
  • Is there any special software configuration needed to enable hot-swapping?

The reason I ask is that, when I start work on my SAN, I would very much like to not have to power it down or otherwise lose service to replace a failed drive.

 

Much appreciated.

 

• Nope, all it is is the SATA Power and SATA Data is pre-installed. As long as the drive fits, any drive can do it.

• This I am not sure about, as I haven't used the controllers. Not a fan of RAID configurations.

• Yes, usually. Though it doesn't have much to do with this anyways.

• The only software configuration(s) needed is to enable it in BIOS if it isn't already. This is the only time you enable it, and no more software configs.

 

Yes, usually you can hot-swap a HDD without powering your unit down.

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« Current PC ~ Phantom Beast »


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Posted

I'm aware of what Hot Swapping is (not hot-plugging, I mean actual hot swap), but I don't know much else about it. Maybe someone can answer a few questions about it:

 

  • Does a given hard drive have to support Hot Swap, or can any drive do it?
  • Do all hardware RAID and HBA controllers support hot swap, or do only some of them?
  • Do motherboard chipsets support hot-swapping?
  • Is there any special software configuration needed to enable hot-swapping?

The reason I ask is that, when I start work on my SAN, I would very much like to not have to power it down or otherwise lose service to replace a failed drive.

 

Much appreciated.

 

Well that's the beauty of hot-swap, you can swap drives in and out on the fly while the OS keeps humming along. Now, just because you can hot swap does not mean you just pull out drive at will, you still need to make the mental check you are pulling the correct drive and not breaking lets say a RAID 0 array, or the dependent two drives in a RAID 10, so its not fool proof.

 

MrYuriy covered the crux of the questions but I do think all HBA's and RAID cards support hot-swap, or should but there might be some brand that does not but I have not seen them or experienced them. You do have to enable hot-swap on mobo SATA controllers and of course needs to be AHCI or RAID mode, IDE does not. Hot swap is a hardware features but again you have to know what you are pulling or hot-swapping, that mental check is required and not part of software :D This is why labeling is your safety net, label the cables, label the drives (so when its out you know where it came from) and the drive carriers (so you know what you are pulling), all you need is a bit of masking tape or if you go the full nine yards a label maker.

 

Invest in tool-less drive carriers, otherwise you'll be messing with those small screws mounting the drives, like I have to :( .

I roll with sigs off so I have no idea what you're advertising.

 

This is NOT the signature you are looking for.

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