RAID

[GrimR]

I have 2 x 250GB HDD RAID1 OS W2K3 R2 and 4 x 320GB HDD RAID 5 (Files/Space).

Server: Dell 1800 (SATA drives)
Problem: The RAID 5 gets degraded and is missing when started. e.g. hardware/HDD problem. When I run dell diagnostics on the controllers and drives it shows that 1 x 250 GB HDD has a problem.

Question: So why is the RAID 5 failing and not the RAID 1?


MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP

 

[Grenage]

Are all of the drives being detected? The problem found on the 250GB member may well not be what's causing problems.

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area" - Major Mike Shearer

 

[GrimR]

All the drives are there, this is not the first time this has happened. I have rebuilt the RAID about 3 times before and replaced one of the disks, that was supposedly failing, but as you can see it's started again.
Not sure what else to test as the Dell diag only shows a disk error and not the controller.
I have now removed the paging file from the RAID5
Errors in enventvwr are:
Virtual disk failed: Virtual Disk 1 (Virtual Disk 1) Controller 0 (CERC SATA 1.5/6ch)
&
Error code 00000077, parameter1 c0000185, parameter2 c0000185, parameter3 00000001, parameter4 039d0000.

MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP

 

[Grenage]

Well it certainly sounds like it's been giving you a lot of trouble; a fourth rebuild?

I would suspect the controller; while it's possible that you were unlucky and had a bunch of hard drives with issues, the odds don't favour it.

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area" - Major Mike Shearer

 

[GrimR]

Yip annoying, I have attached a terabyte USB drive that all the data gets copied to, so in the event this happens I dont have to worry about backups. Just wish I could find the damn problem. I guess I'll just keep making one change at a time till I find it.

MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP

 

[paladin256]

The 320 drives are they Seagates? I would make sure that they are not on the list of drives with bad firmware if they are Seagates. The problem your describing is the exact issue the drives have with randomly dropping.

 

[technome]

Do you have the newest adapter firmware ?, bugs in code are a common cause of this type issue, adapter failures are extremely rare, and would cause issues with all arrays. If a newer firmware does not appear on the Dell support download site, call Dell directly, there maybe a newer download not posted for your particular machine elsewhere on the site. Possible one of the drives in the raid 5 has an intermittent electronics failure, which can be one of the most difficult things to find, as diags will not show it, nor will Windows produce an error event for the particular drive. If under warranty, likely Dell will replace all the drives in the R5, if you are up to date on the firmware.



........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

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

 

[GrimR]

The 320GB drives are seagates, and the other 2 Maxtor. Unfortunately I had to buy the drives separately as I Dell would only give a 3 month warranty on the drives purchased after the original machine purchase.

MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP

 

[technome]

If this is electronic component issue finding the offending drive can be very time consuming as it could be any one of the drives, in either one of the arrays. Do any of the drives have soft/hard errors according to the raid software management logs?

Possible bad slot...have you used a different slot, from the slot which fails the drive (rare but it happens)?


........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

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