MSA 20 never charges battery backed cache fully

[Chris Bullock_1]

I have an MSA 20 that has never gotten a fully charged battery. What causes this? What is the fix?
Here is the output of the hpacucli
root]# hpacucli ctrl sn=P6C8C0EM show status

MSA20 at E00HMLJ13S
Controller Status: OK
Cache Status: OK
Battery Status: NotFullyCharged

[Ruslan]

There is no battery on MSA 20. This is a disk shelf. Check the status of your RAID controller. Is it new installation?

[Uwe Zessin]

The MSA20 is more than a 'disk shelf' - it includes its own SmartArray controller with a cache battery.

Is the MSA20 at current firmware revision?
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/storage/us/family/model/6046.html?locale=en_US&prodSeriesId=420469

[Ruslan]

Saving your presence Uwe, there is no any embedded raid conrollers on MSA20, only Integrated Environmental Monitoring. It CAN support raid functionality with EXT. controllers. http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11942_div/11942_div.html
Can you post link about your information?

[Uwe Zessin]

> Saving your presence Uwe,

Not sure what that is supposed to mean, but let's take a look at the link you present and quote just 1 sentence:
""Cache on the Modular Smart Array 20 Controller may not be upgraded. It comes standard with 128MB of battery-backed cache.""

[Ruslan]

ok, there is no Smart Array Controller, there MSA20 Controller with battery.
Is it right? :)

[Uwe Zessin]

My point was that there is a RAID controller embedded and it looks like you agree, now.

It's managed with ACU, the specs call it "Modular Smart Array 20 Controller" as I have quoted above - let me call it a "SmartArray controller", I'll let you call it the "MSA20 Controller with battery" ;-)

[Glenn N Wuenstel]

The MSA20 is not a JBOD. As Uwe stated it does indeed contain a Smart Array controller with a battery.
In the case where an MSA20 is hooked up behind an MSA1500cs (the "cs" stands for controller shelf) the MSA20 Smart Array controller acts as a pass thru to the MSA1500cs. The function is to change SATA drives into SCSI "looking" drives for the MSA1500cs.
In the case where the MSA20 is hooked up via SCSI cable to a Smart Array controller in a server the Smart Array in the server acts as a pass thru to the Smart Array controller in the MSA20.

So to address the original question, it looks like you have a bad battery if it is never reaching full charge.
Look at the Quickspec link and you will see references to the battery backed cache:
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11942_na/11942_na.html

The Spare Number for the battery is:
307132-001


Hope this helps clear things up,
Glenn

[Chris Bullock_1]

HP has sent me 2 new batteries. I looked at the user guide and it states a very simple battery replacement procedure. So to be safe I believe I will:
1. shutdown the DL380
2. disconnect power to the MSA 20
3. replace the batteries
4. reverse first 3 steps
5. wait and see if the battery fully charges.

I have the following message:
Controller Status: OK
Controller Messages: The current array controller had valid data stored in its battery backed write cache the last time it was reset or was powered up. This indicates that the system may not have been shut down gracefully. The array controller has automatically written, or has attempted to write, this data to the drives. This message will continue to be displayed until the next reset or power-cycle of the array controller.
Should any precautions be taken due to this message?

[Glenn N Wuenstel]

Chris,
Sorry for the late reply but our offices were closed due to Hurricane Rita.

As long as you shutdown the system via the power button it will flush the cache and your data will be fine. If say you just pulled the power cable then you might have an issue.
Let us know how things go...

Glenn