Smart Array 5i+ problem:Is there any way to FORCE Smart Array to mark disk to OK?

[Zeljko Krstic]

Hi,
we have RAID 1+0, 6*146GB disk, G3 Pro Liant DL380.
Server on UnixWare 7.1.4 crushed, disks 5,3,0 claim to be failed. After lot of restarts, we managed to enable disks 0,1,2 to boot operating system, then somehow started to save some database files to external hard drive. After few hours,while copying was working, disk 2 hapend to find bad block and everything crushed again. After restart Smart Array claimed 0 an 2 disks OK and disk 1 "REPLACEMENT". Is there any way to FORCE Smart Array to mark disk 1, to OK?
We think that disk itself is fine (with few bad blocks), because in one moment all drives where marked MISSING or REPLACEMENT, but we managed to boot 0,1,2 succesfully. Any ideas?
Thankx

[Pradip Chakrabarti]

Hi Zeljko,

You may check array configuration utility(logical and physical views), array diagnostics utility and online insight diagnostics reports.

You may need to update the array controller and hdd firmware to latest.

You can not do anything forcefully here.

Pradip

[Zeljko Krstic]

Thanx for responce.
New update:
Problem were in disks back panel.
We managed to get disks to "OK", instead of "FAILURE" or "MISSING" status. How? We let disk works nothing for hours, (booted from CD ROM). Then, we restarts, pluging 1 disk at time. Miracully, they we all marked OK. Then we booted all 6 disks (in other G3 box), sucessfully, and managed to save data somehow.
Conclusion: Smart Array software is problematic. All it need is let user change 1 byte, or one bit at ceartin place on disk which marks disk as "OK". We understand it is not allways that simple, but one of worst thing that software can do for human is to try to be too smart... Please HP, provide software that acctualy repair things, instead of just format disks :-( .

[Marc Carney]

There are some other lessons to be taken from this:
Dont rely on your array as last line of defence,- take a backup
Other components can fail (disk backplane, array controller, system board etc)