If you can't find anything in the log files or you don't see continuous messages on the server console indicating an error, AND you have turned off the Sound Bell For Alerts anyway, it must be something hardware. But don't make that assumption immediately unless you have reviewed the log files for errors. I have seen servers beep even when Sound Bell for Alerts has been disabled, that seems to only quiet SOME error conditions.
If you do suspect a RAID error, I'd be for taking quick action to get a solid backup.
On another note, you could spend a few hundred bucks to have someone correctly diagnose and repair this problem, or you could spend thousands in professional fees to recover from a disaster situation after the server has a complete failure. And how much more does it cost in downtime and lost productivity that can't be easily measured?
The decision is ultimately yours, you have to determine your risk level and act accordingly. Here are a couple of real world situations I have dealt with.
1) Imminent hard drive/raid failure - Diagnose & resolve, correct issue and stablize server PRIOR to catastrophic failure - 3-4 hours and roughly $650 or so.
2) Server RAID failed, all data lost, required emergency server recovery and then migration to new server. Flew to location Sunday afternoon under emergency terms. 3 days working round the clock to recover everything and get system fully functional. I believe that the total cost to the customer was about $12,000. This customer was lucky because downtime was minimized and everybody was functional on server Monday morning, and we were able to hobble along on old server during Monday and then do an emergency migration to new server after production hours had winded down. Had we not been able to be in production Monday morning, 200 users would have been unable to conduct business and they would have essentially been out of business.
Not trying to pimp my services (fredericofonseca already did that for me <grin>)... But you have a real situation that needs to be resolved fast. You should find someone in your local area that can handle this type of critical issue. You can check here:
for someone that should be qualified. Note that even if this is a RAID problem, a Novell expert should be able to handle it.. On the contrary, bring any hardware guy in for the RAID, and most likely they won't know squat about NetWare and could cause more damage because they don't understand how NetWare works.
Marvin Huffaker, MCNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting, Inc.
A Novell Platinum Partner
