Hello,

We've been using a Dell Server T430 (2x E5-2620 v4, 64GB, PERC H730 (25.5.6.0009), Win Server 2016) in production for 5 years.

Several virtual disks are configured on this machine, in RAID0, RAID1 an RAID5, including a RAID1 with 2 Dell SAS 1TB 7.2K 2.5" (ST1000NX0453) which has been working fine for 5 years. This VD only hosts a vhdx file for an Hyper-V Win2016 VM.

In the VM using this vhdx, I experienced I/O error messages while browsing folders with Files Explorer few days ago --> most of folders were OK but some were not accessible :

"Location is not accessible : [folder path] is not accessible - The request could not been performed because of on I/O device error"

In the VM OS disk manage utility, I put the drive offline then online, and the issue disappeared. First odd thing !!!????

In Hyper-V host, I checked the vhdx file consistancy with Powershell -->> OK

Then I check the PERC virtual disk where this vhdx is stored --> bingo, one Dell 1TB disk was in failed state  (iDRAC was unproperly configured to send this alert). And on the enclosure, the disk LED was orange blinking.

Second odd thing : on this Dell server we use the excellent "Hard Disk Sentinel", one of the only software capable of retrieving SMART infos through PERC controler. And the failed disk didn't show any abnormal SMART stats ???!!

Third odd thing : I unplugged/replugged the disk --> its LED became green steady immediately ....! The RAID1 rebuild process started immediatly et finished with success !

Fourth odd thing : I did some intensive benchmark tests with this RAID1 VD, with Diskspd (2h heavy load tests) + Hard Disk Validator (full disk write + read + check --> 10h to complete) --> none issue detected, the hard disk is working fine.

 

Have you any explanations for this strange behaviour ? Thank you in advance.