Flakey smart array 5i

[johnzbesko]

Back in September ('07), there were two posts and some discussion about the smart array 5i in Proliant DL380's that prevent cold re-booting.

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1399006

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1417671

Well, I had to cold boot yesterday and sure enough, the smart array 5i does not start up. I guess I'll just wait a few days until it "magically" starts to initialize again- just as it has several times before. Does anyone have fresh advice? The fact that it works after a few days suggests that there might be some capacitor that takes a while to drain? Or something else that requires a few days to lose something or initialize?

 

[burtsbees]

The 5i controllers for some time were junk. I would suggest getting a new one (Ebay), or a different model. I cannot remember a good replacement for the 5i.
Someone posted a good replacement somewhere here in Tek-Tips...

Burt

 

[ntinlin]

641 is probably your best bet since that is for internal drives and can take a BBWC.
532 would also work but doesn't have a lot of cache RAM and you can't add BBWC to it.

Neill

 

[johnzbesko]

Thank you for your suggestions. I found a replacement 5i controller on ebay for about $80 (incl shipping) and it works fine (so far.)

I searched for the 641 and found it to be a little more expensive and the 532 to be cheaper. I'll be referring to this thread should a future need arise...