PE6650 & PERC 3/DC - RAID5 Error messages....

[ADB100]

I have a PE6650 with a PERC 3/DI RAID controller. There are 5 drives installed - 2*36GB Fujitsu Drives mirrored and 3*72GB Fujitsu drives RAID-5. I attempted to copy some large files (Virtual Server .vhd files) to another server and noticed it taking ages, then it timed out with a message about the path name being too long (it isn't). I then noticed in the Windows System Event log there were a few messages for the drives in the RAID-5 set:

SCSI sense data Sense key: 3 Sense code:11 Sense qualifier: 1: Physical Disk 0:4 Controller 0, Connector 0

I also looked in OpenManage Server Administrator that there were similar Alert Log events:

2095 Fri Nov 07 12:46:53 2008 Storage Service SCSI sense data Sense key: 3 Sense code:11 Sense qualifier: 1: Physical Disk 0:4 Controller 0, Connector 0

Is it likely a drive is about to fail or is there something else wrong?

Thanks

Andy

 

[technome]

Do you have the newest raid firmware and driver?

Have you turned off the server, reseated all drives and connectors, reseated the raid card.

Run a consistency check?

Checked the individual drives for soft\hard errors ?

Are drives running with enough air flow ?





........................................
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http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[ADB100]

Do you have the newest raid firmware and driver?

Have you turned off the server, reseated all drives and connectors, reseated the raid card.

Run a consistency check?

Obviously...... I wouldn't have posted on a whim...

I have reloaded the server and reseated all three drives (as well as the mirror pair just in case) and the PCI RAID card is inserted perfectly. ran a consistency check and it failed so I assume there is hardware fault with on of the drives.

Andy

 

[burtsbees]

Ever figure this out Andy?

Burt

 

[ADB100]

Ever figure this out Andy?

Not really. I replaced the drive in the slot it was complaining about but the replacement seems worse. The rebuild of the array took an absolute age - compared to an old Proliant I have it must have been about a 10-fold increase in time ( Then the drive failed so I just gave up and switched it off.....
I have since replaced the drive with one that has a 'predictive failure' imminent and it has been fine since (apart from the predicitive failure error message). I have a few other drives to try but I am reluctanct since it takes soo long to rebuild the array. It is a RAID-5 array and all the data is backed up so when I get a free day I'll just remove it and recreate it with one of the new drives. It's all in a lab so it isn't too important.

Andy

 

[burtsbees]

Well, since it is in a lab, can you put them into another 6650 and tell the drives to config the RAID controller, like write the config to the controller? Is this the Adaptec version of the 3D/i? Some of those were REALLY flaky back then, I.E. not being able to hot swap drives (it would never rebuild---you'd have to power off, replace the drive, and go into the controller BIOS to tell it to resynch, or rebuild). This was especially true on the 4d/i controllers. Did you kind of suspect the controller? Especially with the long rebuild?

Burt

 

[ADB100]

Its a 3D/i controller so probably even older. It seems to go through the motions of rebuilding and doesn't seem to need to be shut down. I think Dell Open Manage is a bit better than it was but it is still a poor comparison to a HP - and I am talking about a G1 ML370 here with P3's....

Spec-wise it should be a good server - 4*2GHz XEON processors, 16GB of DRAM, two on-board 10/100/1000 Broadcom NIC's (plus 2*Dual port Intel 10/100/1000 PCI cards), PERC 3D/i RAID controller, Adaptec SCSI controller & dual PSU's. Certainly Windows 2003 Enterprise Server with MS Virtual Server 2003 runs really well with about five virtual machines running. It just seems to be disk subsystem that is letting it down (compared to the Compaq ML370).

Andy

 

[burtsbees]

I agree---I just installed 2008 64 bit on a DL585 G2 with two dual core procs and 24GB RAM, and will try and experiment with a DL580 G5 with two quad cores and 18GB RAM. I love the Compaqs, including the ease of Smart Start, ACU, Homepage and Firmware Update CD. No need for extra crap like with IBM's (a cd you have to boot to in order to configure RAID???).

Burt

 

[ADB100]

If only I could afford a DL585 G2 or a DL580 G5......

Andy

 

[burtsbees]

I hear ya...I recently converted from a PL5500 G1 to a DL380 G3 as our file/ftp/whatever server...

Burt