Western Digital WDBLGT0160KBK Replacing Drives, Sharing Files with External Users, Shutting Down

BEST PRACTICES

Replacing Drives

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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

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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

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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.

Before shutting down the server, stop any backups currently running.

To avoid possible corruption, do not unplug the power from the unit while it is running.

WD SENTINEL DX4000	61
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