Recovery on MSA2000 storage with multiple disks failed

[ciao1]

Hi, I am trying to recover as much data as possible from MSA2000 storage, which suffered a power issue, this is my situation (single VDISK with 11 disks, raid5)

# show vdisk
Name                 Size     Free     Pref Owner  Curr Owner  RAID   Dsk Spr Chk Stat Jobs      Serial#
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MSA2000              1467.9GB 131.0KB  A           A           RAID5  11  0   64  OFFL           ***removed***
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# show disks
ID       Serial#               Vendor   Rev. State      Type Size(GB) Rate(Gb/s) SP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.0      ***removed*** SEAGATE  0002 VDISK      SAS  146      3.0       A
0.1      ***removed*** SEAGATE  0002 VDISK      SAS  146      3.0       A
0.2      ***removed*** SEAGATE  0004 AVAIL      SAS  146      3.0       A
0.3      ***removed*** SEAGATE  0004 VDISK      SAS  146      3.0       A
0.4      ***removed***  SEAGATE  0004 VDISK      SAS  146      3.0       A
0.6      ***removed*** SEAGATE  0002 VDISK      SAS  146      3.0       A
0.7      ***removed*** SEAGATE  0002 VDISK      SAS  146      3.0       A
0.8      ***removed*** SEAGATE  0002 VDISK      SAS  146      3.0       A
0.9      ***removed*** SEAGATE  0002 VDISK      SAS  146      3.0       A
0.11     ***removed*** SEAGATE  0002 VDISK      SAS  146      3.0       A
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moderator note: Confidential info erased. 

Two disks seem gone (5 and 10), and disk 0.2 is not longer in VDISK.

I read this:

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00046239en_us&docLocale=en_US

and this:

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=sf000048592en_us&docLocale=en_US

My best guess is to use trust command. Is the right decision?

Thank you

[Cali]

>> My best guess is to use trust command. Is the right decision?

The MSA2000 is very Old, and that's the only Cheap Solution, I know.
But the Trust command only helps, if the Disk is Good and only leaves the Raid a for short time.

You can also Open a Paid HPE Support Call.
Also, in this case, we have good experience with external Data Recovery Providers.
But typically, you have to Pay 10.000 - 20.000$ to rebuild a Raid Array like this.
In these cases I know they did always a good Job and recover the Customer Data.
Cali

[Shawn_K]

@ciao1 

The screenshot you provided shows disk 0.2 as AVAILABLE. This means that disk either never was in the VDISK or the metadata which identifies the disk as part of a VDISK is no longer present. If you cleared the metadata from this disk it cannot be used to recover the VDISK. If you did not clear the metadata then this disk was never in the VDISK and is not part of the recovery.

This leaves the pther two disks 0.5 and 0.10. Since they are not shown as leftover disks in your screenshot I am not sure of their state. If the disks are not being detected by the array then the trust command will not succeed. You have a RAID5 VDISK that is missing two drives. In order to recover the VDISK you will need one of these two missing drives before even attempting the use of the TRUST command. Are these disks still in the system, in your possession, or have they been removed and are no longer available?

Do not use the Trust commnad multiple times. Each time it is run the command changes the metadata time and date stamp on the disks and makes any further recovery impossible. As mentioned you can open a Support Call for more assistance. Your logs will need to be analyized to determine if recovery is possible.

I work for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The comments in this post are my own and do not represent an official reply from HPE. No warranty or guarantees of any kind are expressed in my reply.

Cheers,
Shawn

[ciao1]

Hi! Thank you very much for your reply.

Disk two was LEFTOVR. After, one of my colleague cleared metadata, and now this is AVAILABLE. Probably this has been mistake

The two failed disks are still inserted, we tried to extract/reinsert them but they still remain down.

I was wondering if it was possible to forcibly put vdisk online (even with 9 disks),  and try to recover some files.

Thank you!

[Shawn_K · Accepted solution]

@ciao1 

Clearing the metadata on disk 2 has removed the ability to recover that disk to your VDISK. You have a RAID5 VDISK that can only stand to lose a single disk and still recover the data. If you cannot recover disks 5 or 10 you may not be able to recover the VDISK. You cannot force a RAID5 VDISK back online when it has two or more disks down. 

You might still want to see if there are recovery options by opening a Support case. There might be further options after a log review.

I work for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The comments in this post are my own and do not represent an official reply from HPE. No warranty or guarantees of any kind are expressed in my reply.

Cheers,
Shawn