Logical drive stays on status ready-for-rebuild

[Mark_nl]

Situation:

HP Proliant ML350 G5

Smart Array E200i, 3 disks, 1 logical drive

1 disk gave an error after which we replaced it with a spare disk. At first it appeared rebuilding would start but after a few hours we noticed that the logical drive wouldn't repair itself and stayed in mode "Ready for recovery" (HPSM) / Ready for Rebuild (ACU). After some further investigation it appeared the spare disk was flagged as not reliable (can't reproduce right term).

After this we replaced the disk for another spare disk. This time we monitored the rebuilding for a longer time and this went well up to 65%. The next time we checked (+/- 45 minutes later) the exclamation sign was gone in ACU for the disk but the logical drive now had the state "Ready for recovery" (HPSM) / Ready for Rebuild (ACU) again.

At this point we do not trust the array controller as we are quite certain the disks are OK. What we also see at the top level in ACU (Smart Array E200i in Embedded slot) is that it gives a cache accelerator error "A cache error was detected. Run a diagnostic report for more information.". The report has been run, but it is not clear what is wrong or what can be done.

The array controller has firmware version 1.82 and there is a newer version 1.86 but the list of fixes does not point to a resolution of my situation.

Any ideas? The diagnostic report is attached.

[Emad Omar]

Hi,

In fact I faced a same issue before long time on the same model of server.

As I understood you have a mirror RAID 1 . Your problem is in the Master Disk Drive (Surviver Disk) not on the new disk drive or Smart Array.

What I suggest is to prepare a soonest backup of this server (Image Backup is highly recommended), and then you need to replace the Master disk drive and configure RAID 1 using one disk drive, then restore your data on the new disk drive.

Also after that you can install the second member on this array and rebuilding will be started and problem will be fixed.

[Emad Omar]

Same concept for different RAID Level.

[Emad Omar]

Just to add that if you use RAID 5 also you need to backup you data soon as you will be exposed to loose data.

[Mark_nl]

Hi Emad,

The data is backed-up every 15 minutes without any issues. It is configured in RAID 5. Can I assume that trying yet another disk won't help in this case in your opinion?

Rgds,

Mark