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How to bypass a soft RAID rebuild on a NetWitness appliance

Issue

How to bypass a soft RAID rebuild on a NetWitness appliance.


Resolution

The following procedure will allow you to get around the RAID sync during a build stick process. This is the reason why the Post Install scripts take around 30 minutes to a hour to complete. Be aware that this is not recommended as the drives will not be in full sync.

This should only be used in test environments or situations where the appliance must resume service in a very timely manner. The drives will continue to resync after reboot.

  1. When the system gets to the Post Install scripts press ALT+F2 to flip to a shell.
  2. Check to see if the drives are currently syncing using the following command: 
    #cat /proc/mdstat
  3. You should see the RAID output and a progress bar for the current drive that is syncing. To bypass the sync use the following example if your RAID device is md1: 
    #echo "idle" > /sys/block/md1/md/sync_action
  4. After issuing the command run the following command again: 
    #cat /proc/mdstat
  5. Note which RAID is syncing, as you may have to run the above command again on the other RAID. Keep in mind that one RAID array (usually MD0) is smaller than the other. The boot information is stored on the smaller RAID slice and will only take a moment to sync.
  6. Flip back to the main screen ALT+F1 to see if you're prompted to reboot. If so, press enter to reboot. The RAID will begin to sync once the device is up and in a operational state. You can monitor the RAID sync process at any time (during build / post build) by using the following command: 
    #watch cat /proc/mdstat
  7. This will update every 2 seconds and list the current status of the drive sync. You can exit the window by using CTRL+C.

Internal Comments

UserName:wirthr1
6/20/2012 1:24:24 PM - Solution Number 00000382
Solution Number 00000382

UserName:shurtj
8/26/2014 2:20:27 PM - Updated Article
Updated article and made changes to abide by Primus best practices.

UserName:salmeida
4/1/2024 3:22:27 PM - Updated product name
Updated article product name

Andres Serrano -- 9 May 2024
Added code blocks.

Product Details

Product Set: NetWitness XDR
Platform: NetWitness Appliances
Version: 11.x, 12.x
OS: CentOS, Alma

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