RAID 5 Rebuild Issues

[PLAWR5]

I had a power problem with my WServer 2012 R2 which I think I have solved. All the involuntary restarts played havoc on my RAID 5 Array and I lost a disk. It is a 5 disk system with each disk being 3TB. I have never had to rebuild a disk before. So I got a new disk, popped it in, made it a "Spare" and selected the disk to be rebuilt. I also enabled automatic rebuild with hot plug. I just don't know if anything is happening. I know it takes a long time but how can I tell if there is any progress. The new disk is still marked as a "Spare" and is not part of the Array. In the meantime, the failed disk shows up in the IRST window. It shows as part of the Array, but at 0 bytes with an unknown address. I have tried hovering over various items and I cannot tell if the process has started. It's been a couple of hours. I also don't know how to delete the old failed disk. The OS is degraded as well but I figured this will work itself out once the Array comes back into line, and the disk errors can be corrected. Any information and advice is appreciated. I have tried the using the IRST application during boot, but most menu items are greyed out. I just would like to know what I am doing wrong here? I did not format the disk because I read it was unnecessary in RAID 5. The server definitely sees it. Thanks.

[Esteban_C_Intel]

Hello PLAWR5,

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

We would like to inform you that the data rebuild might take days; so, for today the rebuild process should have finished. 

Let me know if the disk still out of the RAID array. Also, could you please run the Intel® System Support Utility for Windows* and share the results with me? You will find the tool at the following link.

Esteban Ch.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[PLAWR5]

Thanks for the response. As it turns out and upon very close examination, the new disk is 99.99% size of the old disk. That is why the rebuild did not succeed. It would be helpful if the RST software would let the operator know that is the problem. I should have picked up on it, but it would have saved me a lot of time had the software just told me. My bad. Thank you for the assistance.

[Esteban_C_Intel]

Hello PLAWR5,

The software per-se does not provide you with that information; however, as you can see on the following link under "RAID 5 (striping with parity)" the capacity of a RAID 5 array is the size of the smallest drive multiplied by one less than the number of drives in the array. Which means that all the drives you add to the array must have the same capacity to avoid an issue like the one you had. 

For your previous post, I understand that the issue got resolved. We will close this inquiry; but, if you need further assistance, please post a new question.

Esteban Ch.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[PLAWR5]

I​ understand that. This was my bad. I didn't see the small difference in size. However, how hard would it be for the programmers to program the software to say "No, to small, look again!". It is not going to rebuild so it seems like a small request to have RST have a pop up to talk us that. Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[Esteban_C_Intel]

Hello PLAWR5,

Thank you for your feedback.

We have submitted your feedback to the proper department; however, we cannot guarantee that these changes will apply or go thru.

We will close this inquiry; but, if you need further assistance, please post a new question.

Esteban Ch.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel