BEST PRACTICES
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WD SENTINEL DS5100/DS6100
ADMINISTRATOR AND MAINTENANCE GUIDE
Replacing Drives
The online removal of a drive forces a rebuild when the drive is replaced. Until the
rebuild is complete, the RAID system is degraded and unrecoverable failure will
occur should another drive be removed. Only remove one drive at a time between
rebuilds.
Avoid pulling a drive out unless there is a failure.
When a drive needs replacement, the WD Sentinel server is still functional but
subject to a second drive failure that would result in the loss of data. To minimize
this vulnerable time, a good practice is to have another drive ready to replace the
failed drive.
Sharing Files with External Users
Create Employee-Specific Private Folders/Assign Permissions—Depending on the
nature of your business and organizational structure, you may want to create a
shared folder for each employee and give the respective employee Read/Write
permissions for that folder.
Create Shares for Vendors or Clients/Access Remotely—The built-in Remote Web
Access feature enables collaboration on files and data not only among your
employees but also with your clients and vendors.
As a best practice, create a unique user account for each client and vendor you
want to exchange data with and create a dedicated Shared Folder for each such
external user. To prevent giving external users access to your sensitive data, make
sure that the user accounts you create have the appropriate permissions for only
the folders you have created for them.
To start collaborating with your external users, just provide them with the domain
address of your WD Sentinel server and their user name and password.
Shutting Down
Unclean shutdowns are hard on RAIDed systems. The WD Sentinel server
recognizes an unclean shut down and upon the reapplication of power, begins a
long sequence of examining the RAID for errors and bringing the RAID
configuration back into alignment. This sequence can take many hours. To avoid
this situation and to assure that the unit always experiences clean shutdowns and
the best data integrity, use an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).
Note:
Performance is affected during a RAID rebuild and verification.
To avoid possible corruption, do not unplug the power from the unit while it is
running.
