Degraded drive status?

[Ayman Altounji]

ML530, running NW 5.1, latest CPQ management agents. Array consists of 12 36GB drives, 10 of which are identical Quantum Atlas models, and 2 of which are reported as "Compaq", with completely different f/w and rev. levels from the 10 Quantums. 1 Hot Spare.

At system boot, the 5300 controller reports that the 2 Compaq drives are degraded. Insight Manager also reports these drives are degraded (via the remote management agent). The drive indicator lights are not giving any errors, nor are the NetWare agents reporting a problem. Insight Manager, Physical Drives, Indicators says only "Functional Test 1 Threshold: Replace Drv". Everything else is normal and all error counts are 0.

So are these drives actually degraded, or is there something else going on? Seems unlikely that the 2 "different" drives would "fail" while the other 10 are fine, and that there are no indications of any problems.

This is making me very nervous. Anyone have any suggestions??

Thanks.

- Dave Stambaugh

[Ayman Altounji]

Clarifications: All 12 drives are "genuine Compaq", but sourced from different OEMs. When I said the management agents don't report any errors, I meant there are no errors showing up on the server console. The agent does however inform Insight Manager that these drives are "degraded".

- dave

[Ayman Altounji]

I have had the same problem with this exact configuration. Two ML530s with 5.1 & the latest insight agents, and 12 36Gb drives each. We had at least 18 of the 24 drives 'degraded' in this scenario.

The drives are working properly. However, the controller is degrading them for unknown (to me) reasons. Although the drives are okay, they need to be replaced - there is no utility to erase the RIS table that I know of.

This issue is in 3rd level support but they haven't given me a resolution yet. So I requested that they send me replacement 36Gig drives for the 'degraded' ones, as well as loaner 4200 controllers until they fix the 5300s, which they did. You will have to call your regional customer support manager to get the loaner 4200s though.

I now have these servers up with the 4200s and everything is running fine.

Be warned, Texas sent me a dozen _refurbished_ drives as replacements. I wouldn't mind but they were brand new drives. (They have since agreed to replace the replacements with new drives.)

Good luck...

[Ayman Altounji]

suggest calling in to the Customer Support Center @800.652.6672 .