topic Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400 in Disk Enclosures

Cant rebuil array VA7400

Paulo_Ribeiro — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:25:44 GMT

Hi,
In va7400.txt is the armdsp output. It reports a missing disk but when I chek the hardware status and disks with hp command view sdm all disks are included and ok.
I hope this information can help.
Thank you in advance.

Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400

TTr — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:02:11 GMT

How about posting the entire output of "armdsp -a"? Commandview may show all disks are there but that is from a hardware perspective.

Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400

Paulo_Ribeiro — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:07:18 GMT

Hi,
Ok. The armdsp -a output is in attach

Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400

Torsten. — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:25:57 GMT

If a disk fails, the array will be rebuild to ensure redundancy. Once this has finished, you can swap the disk.

I assume you removed the disk before the rebuild was finished, right?

Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400

Paulo_Ribeiro — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:31:25 GMT

I detected the disk 8 was not working. Put a new disk. Automaticaly the array starts formating this new disk and than starts de rebuild and stops withot finishing this last process. When I stat it in auto or manual mode starts and after some seconds stops the process.

Best regards,
Paulo

Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400

TTr — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:56:50 GMT

It is not clear what may have happenned here but I would guess one of two things. Either the original disk was not totally failed and you should have down-ed the disk before removing it, or the new disk that you installed also is failing the same way. It is possible that this flakiness is caused by the port where the disks are plugged in. Try another disk that you are absolutely positive that it is a good disk. Is this array still under support? If so you should contact HP support as well.

Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400

Paulo_Ribeiro — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:24:45 GMT

Hi,

But, is it normal the status of the new disk is Ok (included) and the disk led is green!

Anyway IÂ´l change the disk nÂº8 to see what happen.

Best Regards

Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400

TTr — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:22:21 GMT

> But, is it normal the status of the new disk is Ok

Yes, a disk can be OK when when you plug it in but later when the array starts writing to it, write errors (disk surface errors) may come up and the array stops using the disk.

Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400

Torsten. — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:07:32 GMT

IMHO the problem is not with new disk, but with the missing old:

The following disk is reported MISSING by the controller:
Vendor ID:____________________________HP 73.4G
Product ID:___________________________ST373405FC
Data Capacity:________________________66.757 GB (140,000,001 blocks)
Block Length:_________________________520 bytes
Serial Number:________________________3EK0JF8R
Volume Set Serial Number:_____________00000E6E0000000C
Node WWN:_____________________________2000000c5021d394

The array want to have it back for any reason ...

Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400

TTr — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:54:39 GMT

> IMHO the problem is not with new disk, but with the missing old...The array want to have it back for any reason

Torsten, I think you are corect. I have not had this happened to me on the VAs, but I work with IBM disk arrays and they exhibit the exact same behavior. You must NOT pull a drive out unless it is in a "failed/downed" state. If a drive is not in a failed state and is pulled out, the array will go in a inconsistent state as described here. The only way to recover from this (at least on the IBM arrays) is to reset (reboot) the array controllers.

So the correct method to pull a drive from an array is to either manually change its state to "down" of if the array itself marks it as "failed".

Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400

Paulo_Ribeiro — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:21:06 GMT

Thank for your advice. I tried to put the old disk again but since it is not recognized the array can't reset the information and is always asking for this disk (I can control disk with the disk SN).

Can I do a hard reset to the array with the orange led lighted?

Re: Cant rebuil array VA7400

TTr — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:12:45 GMT

> Can I do a hard reset to the array with the orange led lighted?

Since the missing disk is the cause of the orange led, it should be OK to reset the array. What do you mean by a hard reset? I don't think you need to powercycle, you should reset the controllers from the "diagnostics" screen of commandview or by using a console.