How can I tell if the server supports hot-swapping drives?

Question

I recently purchased a used server (the type that fits into a rack, rather than a free-standing machine). One nice feature, is rather than having to open up the cover and unscrew the harddrives, this machine has eight "easy to use" caddies on the front.

How can I tell if this server unit supports hot-swapping drives? Do I need to look up the machine's specifications, or can I run a command from inside Linux to detect this?

In my particular case, the product number I can find is for the chassis, a SuperMicro model 825-7, and the output from several hardware related Linux commands can be found in this repository: GitHub: IQAndeas/computers: Austere Armadillo.

Keep in mind, I was hoping there was a solution which does not require looking up the specific model number, but can be used regardless of which server you are on.

ewwhite · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-02T07:07:17.620

Grrrr... I hate Supermicro... and white box servers in general - There's no consistency in model numbers or parts. If HP, IBM, Dell, etc., we would be able to look at your server model number and say, "yes, this supports feature X".

For you, this is going to depend on the controller inside the server, as well as how the SAS backplane is connected.

Please provide the information from lspci on the server. Perhaps df -h and lsscsi or cat /proc/scsi/scsi.

This will give us some RAID controller information if (present) and perhaps some information to proceed with.

Edit:

Your server supports hot-swap.

From: https://github.com/IQAndreas/computers/tree/master/austere-armadillo

This is an older 2007/2008-era server.

Here's your RAID controller's logical drives.

[2:0:0:0]    disk    AMCC     9690SA-8I  DISK  4.08  /dev/sda 
[2:0:1:0]    disk    AMCC     9690SA-8I  DISK  4.08  /dev/sdb

and

Host: scsi2 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: AMCC     Model: 9690SA-8I  DISK  Rev: 4.08
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI  SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi2 Channel: 00 Id: 01 Lun: 00
  Vendor: AMCC     Model: 9690SA-8I  DISK  Rev: 4.08
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI  SCSI revision: 05

It's a 3Ware 9690SA-8i, which uses the 3w_9xxx kernel module in Linux. You have a pair of disks in RAID 1 and four disks in RAID 5. These are SATA disks, so I recommend reconfiguring them to RAID 1+0, giving you 2TB of usable space on the larger array. You'll be able to do this from the BIOS by pressing Alt-3 during the RAID controller's initialization. The manual for the RAID controller is here.

score -2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 14 '16 at 03:17

If you can change drives or move them around with just your fingers and no tools, then it supports hotswap. If it's manufactured after about 2006, it supports hotswap. If it uses electrical utility power instead of coal, then it supports hotswap. Get back to work.

How can I tell if the server supports hot-swapping drives?

2 Answers2