VxSvc_PercPro Array Manager Alert Message

Question

Hello,

we received an error message from our Dell PowerEdge 2600 Server
(Windows 2000 Server) in the following window:

"Array Manager Alert Message (Errors)"
Source: VxSvc_PercPro
Description: PERC 4/DI Controller 0, Array Disk 0:0 failed.

We haven't received that kind of message before. The Windows Event
Viewer System Log states that:

"\Device\Scsi\mraid2k1, did not respond within the timeout period"

Unfortunately I couldn't find any helpful information about what
that "VxSvc_PercPro" service does or on how to treat that failure...

Can anyone tell me more about the meaning and advisable reactions?

Thanks very much in advance.
PATSM

mortonpe · Answer

Greetings Pat,

I am going to take a quick shot at this one. In the past I have had MANY problems with the PERC controllers and hard drives. Last time that I called dell about a simular issue, they had me upgrade the PERC Drivers, PERC Firmware, and System BIOS. I was not satisfied with this answer (It is the standard failure answer). After pushing a little harder they sent me this update that reveolved around the maxtor drives falling offline when they where not really dead. The recommended that I download the ISO and update all of the drives in the array. (In fact this error message is telling you that you had a drive failure).

Paul

PATSM · Answer

Paul, thank you for your reply.   Meanwhile we had the same error again. My boss talked to Dell support and (as far as I know) they told him to 'rebuild' the hard drive with a software tool that they supply. It seems to work again. I'd be interested to know what that 'rebuilding' actually does, but I didn't have a chance to ask Dell...   PATSM

mortonpe · Answer

Pat,

Most servers have what is called RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). What RAID does is protect agains drive failures. For example, RAID 1 is mirroring this means that everything that is written to physical disk 1 is also written to physical disk 2. If either,but not both, disk 1 or disk 2 fail the system will contiue to operation because you have two copies of the data. After a failure it is necessary to "Rebuild the disk" in order to get redundancy back.

This wikipedia article will give you all of the informaiton that you would every really care to know about RAID and RAID levels ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks )

PATSM · Answer

Paul,

thanks for the link. Seems to be very interesting. I'll read it in depth as soon as I have time...

In general I guess that if a hard drive fails, it has a problem. So I was wondering at which level

(in terms of seriousness) the failure was that caused our error message. In earlier times a

hard drive that failed once couldn't really be trusted anymore and would most probably totally

fail sometime soon. I don't know if that changed over the years and the ongoing development

of hard drives, but if rebuilding it "solves" the problem then I guess it was either not a very

serious incident - or the user can have the luxury of sitting it out and watching it (since the

second RAID drive wouldn't fail too at the same time). We'll see how our drive performs...

PATSM

mortonpe · Answer

Please call dell support. They will take you through a number of exercises to make sure the the disk is not "Dead". Additionally, they will probably ask you to pull the drive and then re-insert it and initiate a rebuild. Please be prepared that they will ask to you upgrade all of the drivers and firmware on the server.

Again call DELL right away. If you lose another drive you may experience data loss.

Paul

mortonpe · Answer

What hardware are you running on PE XXXX? Raid Controller PERC 2/3/4?

ExMachina · Answer

Hey all,    I have also received this message, for disk 4.  I'm running on Sever2000, how would I go about rebuilding the disk?   Any help would be appreciated.   Thanks

ExMachina · Answer

Problem is, the computer is out of warranty, so even though my company has about 20 that are still underwarranty...this one isn't.  Ergo, no support..not like the good ole days of Dell.

ExMachina · Answer

poweredge 600 SC, not sure where to find version of PERC...

ExMachina · Answer

Perc...or so I assume, the message was as follows   VxSvc_PercPro  CERC ATA100/4ch controller 0, Array Disk 2:0 failed.     Message Edited by ExMachina on 08-29-200610:02 AM

mortonpe · Answer

PERC 4 PERC 3 or PERC 2 and what server platform PowerEdge 2850,6600, etc?

PowerEdge OS Forum

VxSvc_PercPro Array Manager Alert Message

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