Re: RAID array strange behaviour

I had issues on one Intel server that was caused by bad scsi cables.
It has been rock solid for three years after replacing those cables.

Another server I replaced the motherboard and scsi cables with no
improvement. I need to replace the scsi add in raid card next. I would
not swear that the scsi drives are a bit of an issue but no reports of
bad firmware on the hard drives.

On Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:48:01 -0800, markmcd
<markmcd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am currently experiencing the "missing hard drive" error with RAID degraded
and has happened now twice in the past month alone. No actions available
according to the Intel Storage Manager software so cannot do anything to fix.

When this went in for repair last time, I was told that mpeg files in iTunes
was the cause of the problem. I deleted all these and the application and all
was well at least for a while. You may care to test this.

I'm still looking for a solution to my degraded Array.

"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" wrote:

I had similar symptoms when an internal SCSI backplane failed on a member
server. Drive 3 failed over to hot spare. Installed a new drive in 3 and
made that the hot spare. Shortly after, Drive 2 failed over to the new hot
spare in 3. Then 3 failed again.

This was a Dell under warranty, so they replaced the backplane and any drive
that had indicated a problem, even the day-old one that had been replaced in
slot 3. Once they determined that the backplane was bad, they believed that
none of the drives had actually failed, but they didn't want to prolong the
issue or risk data loss, so they just replaced them.



"SuperGumby [SBS MVP]" <not@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23oEp6AvXJHA.1336@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
personally, not seen such, but I do not preclude it from possibility and
your diagnosis seems to confirm it.

As I read your tale I was leaning towards the enclosure being faulty
(where it seems you were also heading).

"Al Williams" <donotreplydirect@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:er%23a4ZuXJHA.1184@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We have a SCSI RAID5 array using an SCA enclosure with 3 drive "slots" on
an Adaptec 2120S. For the couple of weeks, the third slot in the array
was failing periodically resulting in a degraded array. We'd replace the
drive with a working one and rebuild and it would be OK for a few days
then the same slot (with the new drive) would fail again. This issue
would repeat - always the same slot on the enclosure but with several
known-good drives (each time there was nothing wrong with the drive when
we tested it outside the system). We verified the RAID logs and it was
definitely the 3rd drive going offline each time. Not much else in the
logs I'm afraid.

We thought it may be the terminator so we changed that - no effect, the
third slot/drive would still fail periodically (under heavy I/O load we
determined). The SCA enclosure looked OK but we thought maybe it had an
issue but before we had a chance to replace it the 2nd drive in the array
failed. This drive truly failed big-time -- all it does now is
click/click/click...

After replacing the 2nd slot the array has been up and running for over a
week now with no issues. What I'm wondering is if the 2nd drive going
bad could cause the third drive to go offline and show a failure for a
week before it finally cratered. Any chance it was somehow affecting the
bus and causing the 3rd drive to seemingly fail? Anybody seen that?

Just looking for some insights from a more experienced bunch...Thanks.

--
Allan Williams







See what SBS support is working on
http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/default.aspx
Check your SBS with the SBS Best Practices Analyzer
http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/tags/BPA/default.aspx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Low end desktop for EE tasks?
    ... IBM drives were the hot ticket. ... years later, I was replacing them ... IBM gave up and sold out to Hitachi, ... You don't have a backup unless you've done a dry run and tried to ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • RAID5 (mdadm) array hosed after grow operation
    ... I think growing my RAID array after replacing all the ... drives with bigger ones has somehow hosed the array. ...
    (Debian-User)
  • Re: OT -- Wanted
    ... now this is why I bought my computer where I did: ... of replacing one of the drives. ... the drives that are put in brand new are cheap ones. ... You are not alone I will pout with you. ...
    (rec.crafts.textiles.quilting)
  • Re: XP Pro wont stay activated.
    ... replacing the motherboard and the drives. ... > This is not a license to allow you to install it on two separate ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Mixing SSA drive sizes
    ... replacing our J40 with a p630. ... drives for another year, when they'll be replaced. ... >> Cincinnati, OH USA ... >> Do you Yahoo!? ...
    (AIX-L)
Quantcast