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14035
October 13th, 2003 07:00
PE4400, PERC 3/di, RAID errors
I'm going to try to make a long story short.
Out of warranty server. Added (2) 18GB drives to channel 1 where (6) 18GB drives already existed (5 in a RAID and a spare). Inserted them into empty slots while the server was running. (I know - dumb move!) Moments later various drives began generating errors and the server froze. Rebooted, but the drives still created errors and performance degraded.
The next night, I shut down the server, verified some of the drives, but none showed problems. Started to reconfigure the container to include the new drives, but thought more about it and cancelled. Rebooted to OS and errors continued.
Read up on how to go about doing this the proper way and came in 6:00AM on Sunday to delete the existing container and create a new one. Tried creating and scrubbing, but got drive errors each time from different drives. Never got one created successfully and finally contacted Dell around 11:00AM.
First 2 technicians had me do small things like verify drives, upgrade BIOS, PERC firmware and NT driver, but still no success. 3rd support guy gave me extensive procedure which included removing RAID key, RAM and battery cable. He also had me low level format the drives, initialize them and create a new container. None of this could be found in a KB article. This worked better than anything else had and the new partition scrubbed successfully. However, when I began restoring data, another drive errored and the volume degraded.
4th technician told me to remove the (2) new drives, verify the remaining drives, delete and recreate the container. So far (4) of the (6) drives have verified. I fully expect this to produce the same result as before. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks to Dell for helping even when server is out of warranty.
6HZ100B
Message Edited by TWillin on 10-13-2003 03:27 AM
DELL-GaryS
777 Posts
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October 13th, 2003 13:00
Are you running FAST or array manager? FAST CLI can pull up some diagnostic info on your drives and controller. Go to support.dell.com docs storage controller interface cards and perc 3/DI to find the manuals. If you have updated the F/W and driver, you also will need to update the FAST. (FAST and AM cannot both be installed, the API calls conflict)
(The 1x2 drive bay that you have will not be able to handle any of the drives you can get today, the new parts you will need to get if one of the drives goes bad is 9D430 and 68RDU new BP cage, and SCSI cable.)
If you have a service call to fix the server you can buy up to 1 1/2 more years of warranty coverage.
DELL-GaryS
twillin
5 Posts
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November 5th, 2003 19:00
DELL-GaryS
777 Posts
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November 5th, 2003 20:00
Hi Twillin,
The two drives you have are LVD 7.2k drives they will work, however the original drives are 10K rotational speed, do not leave the array with mixed speed drives, replace the failed drive rebuild then replace the other and rebuild again
You can call Dell spare parts to see if they have any subs that are LVD 10K speed.
DELL-GaryS
twillin
5 Posts
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November 6th, 2003 14:00
Actually, the 2 drives I originally added were 10K drives, but they caused the problems I mentioned in the initial post. They are Dell P/N 05F380:C/O, PH:Rev. A00. Should these drives have worked?
Talked to parts sales. They gave me a quote for P/N 340-7481 which states that it works with the PEx6xx series. When I questioned its applicability to the PE4400, they came back with P/N 340-7884 for which I can't find any information.
Both parts are listed as 10K, Ultra320. The existing drives are Ultra160. Do you know which one will work in the PE4400?
Message Edited by TWillin on 11-06-2003 12:51 PM
Message Edited by TWillin on 11-06-2003 12:53 PM
twillin
5 Posts
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November 20th, 2003 12:00
Bought (3) new 36GB drives P/N 340-7884 and installed (2) of them on 11/15/03 in PERC3/Channel 1/Slots 8 & 9 and began getting afaport errors in the NT event log. No errors are being logged in the Array Manager event log. Did not add them to the existing array since I was already seeing errors. Initialized both drives but the format failed on both with this error (see 30 & 31):
37 Information 11/17/03 9:23:23 AM Perc2Pro 555 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:8 diagnostics completed.
36 Information 11/17/03 8:17:14 AM Perc2Pro 528 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:8 diagnostics started.
35 Information 11/16/03 9:43:38 AM Perc2Pro 524 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:9 has been initialized.
34 Warning 11/16/03 9:43:31 AM Perc2Pro 537 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:8 diagnostics cancelled.
33 Information 11/16/03 9:42:46 AM Perc2Pro 528 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:8 diagnostics started.
32 Information 11/16/03 9:42:35 AM Perc2Pro 524 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:8 has been initialized.
31 Error 11/16/03 9:04:51 AM Perc2Pro 540 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:8 format failed.
30 Error 11/16/03 9:04:49 AM Perc2Pro 540 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:9 format failed.
29 Information 11/16/03 8:00:50 AM Perc2Pro 522 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:9 format started.
28 Information 11/16/03 8:00:45 AM Perc2Pro 522 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:8 format started.
27 Information 11/16/03 7:44:11 AM Perc2Pro 524 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:8 has been initialized.
26 Information 11/16/03 7:44:03 AM Perc2Pro 524 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , Array Disk 1:9 has been initialized.
25 Warning 11/16/03 7:31:39 AM Perc2Pro 583 PERC 3/Di Controller 0 , I/O paused, I/O will automatically resume after the allotted time (150 seconds).
So even Dell recommended drives fail in slots 8 & 9. What can I do to utilize these slots? This situation is becoming critical as we have reached maximum storage capacity several times. I am having to spend too much time managing the data. Please provide some assistance to make this work. I have an existing case number: 013153824.
DELL-GaryS
777 Posts
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November 24th, 2003 13:00
Hi Twillin,
SKU# 340-7884 are U320 type drives. You have an early version of SCSI cable and SCSI BP that may have problems handling the U320 speed drives. (P/N 0036R cable and P/N 94243 SCSI BP) There are upgrade parts available from spare parts sales that may resolve this issue P/N 83KNG cable, and P/N 1068R SCSI BP Assy. Your other option is to return the new U320 drives and purchase USED or spare parts to get a U3/160 drive.
DELL-GaryS