Can I suppress battery failed messages on servers with Drive Arrays?

[Denise Thompson]

I recently took over monitoring of our HP servers and the manager of the server group asked if I could suppress the battery failed messages since we don’t need the accelerator option of the array. If so, is there a software method or do would we  need to remove the cache module.

[LouisH · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If you are running a server with Raid0 or Raid0+1, I don't think it would matter. You cannot remove the cache module as the SA controller needs memory to function.

If you are speaking about the SmartArray Controller with a WBBC, I think you could run without a battery attached to the cache module. This should allow the cache to preform in "read-through" mode. There are

some problems with this configuration however as the battery allows for Raid5 or Raid6 data protection reconstruction by using queued writes to storage array in the background. Without a battery, your controller will not be able to extend or expand the drives in the Array. Your performance WILL be noticeably slower, and if you failed a disk in the array, your recovery time would be way longer if could start a rebuild on a new disk.

Software wise: If you are running Windows and HP Managment Agents are installed, you can open the Managment console and look for an agent associated with SCSI controller or Raid controller. Highlight agent and select the remove (or not monitor) button in the middle of the two panes. You don't have to reboot server. close out window and you're done. This option brings another problem to light...if you have a disk failure you will never be notified so you can resolve the issue.

A replacement battery is relatively cheap when  you account for ALL features it allows regarding your Arrays.

HP has some web videos used for customer replaceable options (batteries are usually one of the user replaceable parts). HP Part Store can provide parts for newer SA controllers. If HP is out or doesn't carry them any longer, you can find them on the web.

Regards,

Louis

[waaronb]

Yeah, I *think* if you just unplug the battery then set the cache to 100% read, it will just treat the array controller as a regular read-only setup.

I don't know if they still do, but HP used to sell cache modules without batteries as an option, if all you needed was read-cache (or liked rolling the dice on power outages and lost data in write mode).