How to tell if my dedicated server HDD is failing ?

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  • freecartoonporn
    Confirmed User
    • Jan 2012
    • 7683
    #1

    Tech How to tell if my dedicated server HDD is failing ?

    read the title .

    i have 3 dedictaed servers , non managed.

    i was wondering, how to tell if hdd is starting to fail ?

    what are the signs ?


    thanks for your time.
    SSD Cloud Server, VPS Server, Simple Cloud Hosting | DigitalOcean
    Tags: None
    • Marshal
      Biz Dev and SEO
      • Jun 2005
      • 15219
      #2
      not going to pretent that i'm S.M.A.R.T., so you can try this: https://superuser.com/questions/1711...f-a-hard-drive
      ---
      Busy ranking websites on Google...

        Comment

        • rowan
          Too lazy to set a custom title
          • Mar 2002
          • 17393
          #3
          There will often be no signs. If uptime is important, you need to do both of these:

          1. Redundancy (eg RAID) : to allow your server to continue operating when a drive fails.

          2. Backup: to allow recovery if the RAID array fails, or someone maliciously deletes your Apache install.

          There is little point trying to predict the failure of a drive.

            Comment

            • freecartoonporn
              Confirmed User
              • Jan 2012
              • 7683
              #4
              thanks, i have one dedicated server with raid soft 10
              or something like that, 2x4tb

              i was under impression, if one drive fails then i have to ask the support to switch to another working drive from RAID, but if its automatic then no worries ., i guess.
              SSD Cloud Server, VPS Server, Simple Cloud Hosting | DigitalOcean

                Comment

                • rowan
                  Too lazy to set a custom title
                  • Mar 2002
                  • 17393
                  #5
                  If the server is unmanaged they may be relying on you to monitor the drives, and request any necessary rectification yourself. Don't assume they'll automatically know when something fails - ask them for clarification...

                  Don't forget backups.

                    Comment

                    • Klen
                      • Aug 2006
                      • 32235
                      #6
                      Originally posted by rowan
                      There will often be no signs. If uptime is important, you need to do both of these:

                      1. Redundancy (eg RAID) : to allow your server to continue operating when a drive fails.

                      2. Backup: to allow recovery if the RAID array fails, or someone maliciously deletes your Apache install.

                      There is little point trying to predict the failure of a drive.
                      True, often when it start to show signs data loss already start to occur.

                        Comment

                        • NatalieMojoHost
                          Confirmed User
                          • Aug 2013
                          • 1479
                          #7
                          There may not be signs but if there are, sometimes the server will start acting up - mysql / databases not connecting is usually the first sign. Maybe a sudden need for reboots.

                          Redundancy via RAID is constant, there is a RAID monitoring daemon. If you had a managed service your host would be doing that, if not you're responsible for doing that yourself. Once a drive fails, such monitoring would show you a drive has burned out, but the server would continue functioning using remaining drives. RAID makes things easy as drives are typically hot-swappable - rip out the bad, put in new, rebuild the array.

                          This doesn't mean that RAID is the same as a backup. If you accidentally delete something on your server, the backup is where you'd be able to get that information, it will be gone from the server. There are also other things that can fail and in this case, RAID wouldn't help, so regular backups are a must.

                          MojoHost.COM | natalie at mojohost dot com | Skype natalie.ac | Telegram @znatalie. Since 1999: 70 Adult Industry awards for Best Hosting Company and professional excellence.

                            Comment

                            • k0nr4d
                              Confirmed User
                              • Aug 2006
                              • 9231
                              #8
                              Half the time a drive crashes it's not even the drive. Just this morning I woke up to no operating system on my computer, swapped SATA cable and it was fine.
                              Mechanical Bunny Media
                              Mechbunny Tube Script | Mechbunny Webcam Aggregator Script | Custom Web Development

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                                • rowan
                                  Too lazy to set a custom title
                                  • Mar 2002
                                  • 17393
                                  #9
                                  Originally posted by k0nr4d
                                  Half the time a drive crashes it's not even the drive. Just this morning I woke up to no operating system on my computer, swapped SATA cable and it was fine.
                                  I binned (well, put aside) two SSDs because I thought they had reached the end of their useful life. They tested fine in another machine, but when they were put under load in the main server they dropped out after a few seconds of ZFS pool rebuilding. They have a very high TBW value, well beyond the warranty, so I figured the cells were done and some couldn't be written to any more.

                                  It turns out that there was something odd happening with the SATA port or hotswap bay... after a reboot they worked fine, and are still working fine now.

                                  I discovered this AFTER I'd already purchased replacement drives...

                                    Comment

                                    • Bladewire
                                      StraightBro
                                      • Aug 2003
                                      • 56228
                                      #10
                                      Originally posted by k0nr4d
                                      Half the time a drive crashes it's not even the drive. Just this morning I woke up to no operating system on my computer, swapped SATA cable and it was fine.
                                      Great point!


                                      Skype: CallTomNow

                                        Comment

                                        • bronco67
                                          Too lazy to set a custom title
                                          • Dec 2006
                                          • 29032
                                          #11
                                          If you knew all of the crazy shit that goes on inside of a mechanical hard drive, you'd be amazed that it didn't fly into a million pieces after 10 seconds of operation.

                                          I've been through a couple of hard drive failures and there was no audible warning from the hardware itself. But, I did start to notice weird shit with the daily operation in the OS. Things like files not copying properly or giving errors...or file corruption happening with increased frequency. When you see that, it may be ready to shit the bed.

                                          PLease back up yo shit!

                                            Comment

                                            • Brad Mitchell
                                              Confirmed User
                                              • Nov 2001
                                              • 9813
                                              #12
                                              Great thread! Lots of good technical advice and experience sharing in here. Always RAID. Always keep a backup somewhere else. SMART monitoring. Sometimes there is no warning. Sometimes a worn/old drive with few errors simply fails under load. Statistically for most enterprise drives, you can expect failure rates of less than a percent to a few percent. Consumer drives are often much worst. Stuff just fails, so plan for failures and be diligent about your preparation.

                                              ...with a managed host like us... (cough)... just don’t worry about it!

                                              Brad
                                              President at MojoHost | brad at mojohost dot com | Skype MojoHostBrad
                                              71 industry awards for hosting and professional excellence since 1999

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