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Difficulty: Very hardStorage Drives and RAID Array Issues

A system administrator receives a predictive failure alert on Disk 2 of a four-drive hardware RAID 5 array hosting an active file share. To replace the failing disk while protecting data integrity and restoring array redundancy, in what sequential order should the administrator perform the following steps?

  1. 1Perform a verified backup of the current RAID volume data.
  2. 2Set the failing physical drive to an offline status using the RAID controller management utility.
  3. 3Remove the failing drive from the drive bay and seat the compatible replacement drive.
  4. 4Initiate the RAID volume rebuild process through the controller interface.
  5. 5Monitor the rebuild progress until the volume status transitions back to Optimal.

Answer

The correct procedural order is: first, perform a verified backup of the current RAID volume data; second, set the failing physical drive to an offline status using the RAID management utility; third, remove the failing drive from the drive bay and seat the compatible replacement drive; fourth, initiate the RAID volume rebuild process through the controller interface; fifth, monitor the rebuild progress until the volume status transitions back to Optimal.
The standard technician workflow for addressing predictive drive failures in hardware RAID arrays demands data protection prior to physical hardware manipulation. Creating a fresh backup protects against secondary drive failure. Taking the disk offline logically ensures clean separation from the controller. Physical drive replacement follows, after which initiating and monitoring the rebuild until status reaches Optimal completes the restoration of fault tolerance.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Execute a full, verified backup of the RAID 5 array.
Recent volume state is safely preserved on secondary storage.
RAID 5 can only sustain a single drive failure; backing up first mitigates catastrophic data loss if another disk encounters unrecoverable read errors during the rebuild.
2
Log into the RAID controller utility and set the predictive failure disk offline.
The controller logically unmounts the drive from the array.
Prevents OS/controller I/O hangs or data corruption during physical extraction.
3
Hot-swap the failing physical disk with a new disk of equal or greater capacity.
New blank drive is physically installed in the target bay.
Provides the physical medium required to accept parity reconstruction.
4
Assign the new drive as a hot spare or manually start the rebuild process in the utility.
The controller begins calculating parity and writing missing block data to the new drive.
Parity recalculation is necessary to reconstruct the data of the replaced drive.
5
Track rebuild logs until the array health returns to Optimal.
Volume redundancy is fully restored.
Ensures the rebuild process finishes without write failures or bad sectors.

Key Concept

RAID 5 Predictive Failure and Hot-Swap Rebuild Procedure
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Topics

Storage Drives and RAID Array Issues

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