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Replacement of a disk in the RAID


AshleyUk
14-09-2011, 18:34
I know this won't help in the future, but if you are doing anyting that may cause your server to go down/reboot make sure you disable monitoring in the manager, then you won't have to worry about any emails or tickets been automatically opened.

l_bratch
14-09-2011, 17:19
Quote Originally Posted by sypher
This is a fairly huge problem; may we know how it ended?

Same thing happened to a client of mine which i referred to OVH; and the result of it were catastrophic. (With same thing i mean unexplained substitution of possibly healthy disk or otherwise recoverable).
Hi Sypher

In the end I simply gave up. After weeks of emails and support tickets with different OVH people, having to re-explain the problem to various new people, and having to battle with people simply not believing me, I lost the will to go on and accepted the loss (furiously).

I can't view the tickets any more (I just get "You are not allowed to view this ticket") so I can't really provide anything other than vague memories.

I got rid of the server and got a new one as the newer models were better/cheaper.

I'm very curious as to what happens in your situation though.

Luke

sypher
14-09-2011, 17:06
This is a fairly huge problem; may we know how it ended?

Same thing happened to a client of mine which i referred to OVH; and the result of it were catastrophic. (With same thing i mean unexplained substitution of possibly healthy disk or otherwise recoverable).

l_bratch
07-12-2010, 19:46
Hi Neil

Thanks for your reply.

As I have already explained in my previous post, it *is* the exact same hard disk as before:

It has the same serial number, it has the same SMART history, and I can see random strings of data on the raw disk that are my own.
If the technician's log is truthful, then he/she must have made a mistake - perhaps they accidentally re-used the same disk.

I think that OVH has clearly made a fairly huge error here. At the very least I ask you to ship the disk to me at your expense.

If, despite the evidence, you truly believe that the disk was faulty, and that the current disk in the server is a replacement, please make the old disk available for me to access remotely in a server so I can verify its identity before entertaining the idea of paying for it to be shipped to me.

Luke

Neil
07-12-2010, 19:00
Quote Originally Posted by l_bratch
Hi fozl

Sadly I was very behind on the backups - tricky juggling around 100 GB of backup space.

I've taken a look at the disk in the server, and it's actually exactly the same disk as before. It has the same serial number, it has the same SMART history, and I can see random strings of data on the raw disk that are my own. It seems clear the the disk didn't fail and was not replaced...

In the support ticket it was mentioned that the motherboard was replaced, which does seem likely as the CPU has indeed changed - my 2.6 GHz Celeron has been replaced with a 1.2 GHz Celeron, for some reason.

Since the disk hasn't been replaced, I can only assume that the following happened:

1. On the 20th November the OVH monitoring system detected that my server could not boot, and scheduled a disk replacement. It actually couldn't boot due to changes I was making. I immediately replied to this asking for an explanation. Later that day I explained that everything was OK and said "Please do not replace the disk!".

2. Yesterday, despite me asking for the disk to not be replaced, another ticket was opened stating that the disk would be replaced. I immediately replied asking again for it not to be replaced, and spent the remainder of the day trying to get OVH to stop.

3. OVH began the invention on the server (which was running perfectly) which involved replacing the motherboard, wiping the disk, and reinstalling Gentoo on *the same disk* it from scratch.

4. I was then told that the disk had failed (even though it is currently running perfectly fine in the server), but that it can be sent to me via courier.

Is this accurate?

Apologies if not, or if this is not a suitable place to discuss this (I am getting much better answers here than from the support ticket system).

Luke
Hi

It should not be the same hard drive, the technicians log is this:

Following the change of hard disk, there were several problems during the start of Gentoo. All components of the machine have been tested. In the end, motherboard, hard drive and the ram have been changed. The installation was successful. Ping the server and port 22 (SSH) is open.

As you have the low end Kimsufi with only a single hard drive, there is little we can do except from reinstall, your old drive is available for shipment if required.

l_bratch
07-12-2010, 18:50
Hi fozl

Sadly I was very behind on the backups - tricky juggling around 100 GB of backup space.

I've taken a look at the disk in the server, and it's actually exactly the same disk as before. It has the same serial number, it has the same SMART history, and I can see random strings of data on the raw disk that are my own. It seems clear the the disk didn't fail and was not replaced...

In the support ticket it was mentioned that the motherboard was replaced, which does seem likely as the CPU has indeed changed - my 2.6 GHz Celeron has been replaced with a 1.2 GHz Celeron, for some reason.

Since the disk hasn't been replaced, I can only assume that the following happened:

1. On the 20th November the OVH monitoring system detected that my server could not boot, and scheduled a disk replacement. It actually couldn't boot due to changes I was making. I immediately replied to this asking for an explanation. Later that day I explained that everything was OK and said "Please do not replace the disk!".

2. Yesterday, despite me asking for the disk to not be replaced, another ticket was opened stating that the disk would be replaced. I immediately replied asking again for it not to be replaced, and spent the remainder of the day trying to get OVH to stop.

3. OVH began the invention on the server (which was running perfectly) which involved replacing the motherboard, wiping the disk, and reinstalling Gentoo on *the same disk* it from scratch.

4. I was then told that the disk had failed (even though it is currently running perfectly fine in the server), but that it can be sent to me via courier.

Is this accurate?

Apologies if not, or if this is not a suitable place to discuss this (I am getting much better answers here than from the support ticket system).

Luke

fozl
07-12-2010, 15:21
Quote Originally Posted by l_bratch
Hello again

I'm still waiting for a reply in the support ticket, however the last thing I heard in the ticket was that I can "recover the old disc by UPS". I'm not entirely sure what this means, but it might imply that OVH is offering to send me my disk through a courier.

I trust that this isn't really the case, and that my data has in fact been preserved by OVH, and can be restored to whatever disk is in the server right now.

Luke
News is not good I'm afraid. There was a disk failure, which is why the server was being intervened on even though you did not request it. The disks have been replaced but as for the data... we can send you the old hard disk if you want (as said on the ticket), but there is a charge for that (£120 iirc). Did you make use of the 100GB of FTP Backup?

l_bratch
07-12-2010, 14:21
Hello again

I'm still waiting for a reply in the support ticket, however the last thing I heard in the ticket was that I can "recover the old disc by UPS". I'm not entirely sure what this means, but it might imply that OVH is offering to send me my disk through a courier.

I trust that this isn't really the case, and that my data has in fact been preserved by OVH, and can be restored to whatever disk is in the server right now.

Luke

l_bratch
06-12-2010, 18:33
Hi fozl

Thanks for your reply. I have seen that the changes went ahead already, and was getting ready to be angry, but your post has given me hope...

My server appears to have been completely reinstalled, and is now a completely fresh Gentoo 2007.0 build:

Code:
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1              10G  1.3G  8.2G  14% /
/dev/hda2             221G  188M  210G   1% /home
I have mentioned this in the ticket, but I thought I should say it here too as you have been particularly informative.

Quote Originally Posted by fozl
Please contact us via email if there are any problems regarding the data.
Is replying to the existing ticket sufficient here, or should I start a new one, or email you outside of the ticket system?

Thanks
Luke

fozl
06-12-2010, 18:27
So the change had gone ahead, it was too late to cancel. However the data will not have been wiped, but preserved through the replacements. Please contact us via email if there are any problems regarding the data.

fozl
06-12-2010, 15:14
Hi I_bratch,

I've looked into this, the replacement is being carried out due to ticket #596455. I have requested it be cancelled. Please state on the ticket via your Manager (Contact our support > Manage Incidents) on the new ticket #609721 if there is now a problem with the disk etc.

About the phone support today: http://status.ovh.net/?do=details&id=884

l_bratch
06-12-2010, 14:06
Hello

I received an email from OVH about an hour ago with the subject:

Ticket 609721 - Replacement of a disk in the RAID
The contents of the ticket was:

Please note that our technical teams will intervene on your
server ks33572.kimsufi.com within 15 minutes to achieve the
following intervention:

Replacement of a disk in the RAID
I have not requested this to happen, my server has no disk issues, and it doesn't even have RAID!

About 45 minutes ago the server went down, I replied to the ticket about 40 minutes ago asking them to stop but have not heard a reply. I have tried phoning OVH support but the OVH phone lines are down!

Could anybody offer any help? My NIC handle is LB11141-OVH.

Thanks
Luke