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March 26th, 2008 20:00
RAID Controller Failure
I planned to order several RAID 1 configured Dell Optiplex workstations for a client, but a person I work with told me about a problem they had with a Dell PowerEdge Server (not sure of the model number).
According to my friend, the RAID controller on the server went out and Dell had to ship out a new controller. The shocking part of the story was that when they got the replacement controller, the drives were completely unusable. Dell told him that this was normal procedure when controllers go out. Apparently my friend went round-and-round with Tech Support, but to no avail. He finally rebuilt the entire system from the ground up.
Still a little skeptical of the story, I contacted Dell Tech Support regarding the Optiplexes and an L2 tech confirmed that if the RAID goes out, the data on the disks is unrecoverable. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!!! The whole point of RAID 1 is data redundancy – yet the controller still provides a single point of failure! If the controller goes bad, I would expect to replace the controller and bring the drives back online.
Does anyone know anything about this? I’m interested in feedback on both the PowerEdge Servers and the Optiplexes.
Dennis Smith
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March 27th, 2008 14:00
I am not sure who your friend talk to about the his server, but if you have a controller failure you should not have to rebuild the system. Of course there are few exceptions with our older raid cards, but generally there is no problem. The raid configuration is stored on both the controller and the disks. This way you can replace controllers or move disk to a "like" system. I cannot tell you specifically if this is the same with the workstations, but if they use the PERC cards it will be. You may want to ask this on the Workstation board.
lsheets
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March 27th, 2008 15:00
Thanks Dennis. My friend spoke to Dell Tech Support and apparently escalated the issue up to the point that there was nothing left to do except rebuild the machine. I also called in and had an L2 tech confirm that if the controller goes bad the drives have to be rebuilt on the Optiplexes.
I can't seem to convince anyone that this is a terrible design flaw that defeats the purpose of RAID 1 redundancy. They just keep telling me that if a drive goes out you can replace it or if you don't want to use RAID 1 you can turn it off. If you know of anyone to communicate this concern to at Dell, it would be greatly appreciated.
I'll also post my question in the suggested forum.