Currently one of our Dell servers (PowerEdge 320)is showing a predictive failure indicated by flashing green and amber LED’s on the disk, as well as showing a S.M.A.R.T alert. The server is running esxi 5.1 and has 3 VM's running that I can't shutdown. What is the correct procedure for replacing the failing drive? I was thinking of using MegaCli to do the hard drive swap. Does Dell recommend another procedure to not disrupt server operation? I should also mention there is no IDRAC port on this server.
I was going to use the following commands in MegaCli
Set the drive offline, if it is not already offline due to an error
MegaCli -PDOffline -PhysDrv [E:S] -aN
Mark the drive as missing
MegaCli -PDMarkMissing -PhysDrv [E:S] -aN
Prepare drive for removal
MegaCli -PDPrpRmv -PhysDrv [E:S] -aN
Change/replace the drive
If you’re using hot spares then the replaced drive should become your new hot spare drive:
MegaCli -PDHSP -Set -PhysDrv [E:S] -aN
In case you’re not working with hot spares, you must re-add the new drive to your RAID virtual drive and start the rebuilding process
MegaCli -PdReplaceMissing -PhysDrv [E:S] -ArrayN -rowN -aN
MegaCli -PDRbld -Start -PhysDrv [E:S] –aN
Do I have any other options?