Poweredge 4400 with degraded arrays

[DaveBrown]

Hi All,
I have a PE4400 running nw 5.1 sp7 and Array Manager for Netware 3.4.and running RAID5 scsi drives 0,1,2,3,4,5
Virtual Disk 0 is degraded because only drives 0,1 are in the array even though drives 0,1,2 are reported as ready and Virtual Disk 1 is degraded because only drives 3,5 are in the array
The reconfigure option is greyed out when I right click "Virtual Disk 0" so I am unable to add drive 2 into array 0
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated in finding a solution

Regards

Dave

PS I can e-mail an screen dump of the problem if it helps

 

[tilba16]

Sounds like you have a couple of missing memebers in your arrays.
This is a problem caused with the early BIOS/Firmware level
of the PERC controller.
I would suggest that once the failed drives have been replaced that you upgrade your drivers/BIOS and firmware of your PERC.
Initially you should identify which drives have failed and replace them.
If you have a PERC3/Di then at the BIOS( after the drives have been replaced) press CTL-A to go into the BIOS.

Go to manage containers and depress <CTL-S>.
This should show the missing drive, from then depress the <insert> key. This should recover the missing member and start the rebuild process.
Hope this is of assistance.

 

[DaveBrown]

Hi Barhampa
Thanks for the reply.
It's a PERC 3/Di with firmware version 2.1-3(Bld 2951)
I'll have to arrange some downtime with the users to try out your suggestion

Thanks again

Dave

 

[tilba16]

Your firmware level is one of the factors attributing to the problem.
You should be at/about V2.8. Once you recover the drives
my recommendation is to upgrade your BIOS/Firmware levels/drivers on your system.
You will have to do the PERC bios in a couple of stages
before going to V2.8.
This level addresses these sort of issues you are experiencing.

See the Dell Support site :

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...&typecnt=4&vercnt=9&formatcnt=3&fileid=136649

(Important information about this package
===========================================
* This firmware package supports PERC 3/Di in following platforms:
-PowerEdge 4400, integrated PERC 3/Di, non-PAE only

* This firmware REQUIRES minimum System BIOS rev A11 PRIOR to flashing the firmware. Flashing this firmware to the system without first having updated to the above BIOS will render the system inoperable.

* Before updating your system to v2.8 level using Update Packages for Windows, please make sure your firmware level is at least v2.6 for your PERC 3/Di controller.

* PERC 3/Di on PE4400 servers using legacy firmware levels of 2.1.3 or 2.1.5 will require the following steps to assure a successful manual update to firmware revisions 2.8.x.

Steps for manual update from firmware v2.1.X to firmware v2.8.x:
To assure a proper update to the PERC 3/Di Windows driver version 2.5 or later, it is necessary to apply the driver 2.1-5 patch prior to updating to the driver version 2.5. Failure to install the
driver patch may result in a system hang followed by a blue screen error during the reboot.

***NOTE: This patch file is not included nor is it needed with PERC 3/Di driver versions 2.6, 2.7, or 2.8.

The driver upgrade patch is only required on systems using older PERC 3/Di 2.1.x firmware/driver code running Windows 2000. Systems already using version 2.5 can be updated directly to version 2.7.0 or higher without problems.

To update to version 2.5:
Run the 2.1.x driver patch (p3patch.bat) included with the Windows 2000 2.5 driver download files.
Update the Windows 2000 driver to 2.5.
Update the firmware to version 2.5 when rebooting the system.

To update from version 2.5 to version 2.8.x:
Update System BIOS PRIOR to flashing the firmware. Minimum system BIOS required is A11.
Update the Windows 2000 driver to 2.8.x.
Update the firmware to version 2.8.x when rebooting the system.)