Smart Array 221

[Sean Waite]

We have a smart array 221 in a Proliant 1600R. We are testing out an Andataco external storage array. Now the drives are seen fine when connected to the Proliants 2nd SCSI bus. But as we can not connect both internal and external at the same time to a SMA221 we added in a 2nd smart array card. Now the card is seen fine by the system, but no drives show up. No matter what we do we can not get this to see the drives. Our concern is tomorrow we are picking up a new external storage array that we want to connect to either a 1600R or an 1850R. At the very least I just want to understand why the Smart Array 221 doesn't see any drives while the Proliants external SCSI port does.

[Sean Waite]

In the Compaq array diagnostics on the smartstart CD I get this:

Controller is not configured
SCSI Port 1 Drive ID 2 is not stamped for monitoring
SCSI Port 1 Drive ID 5 is not stamped for monitoring
SCSI Port 1 Drive ID 8 is not stamped for monitoring

Error occured reading RIS copy from SCSI Port 1 Drive ID 2
Error occured reading RIS copy from SCSI Port 1 Drive ID 5
Error occured reading RIS copy from SCSI Port 1 Drive ID 8

No configuration for array acceleration board

[Leslie Martin]

If the drives are seen ok when connected to a standard SCSI port then they are not part of a RAID set created by a RAID Controller. RIS stands for Raid Information Set and is information written to drives when they are grouped as a RAID set by a RAID controller.

[Sean Waite]

The drives shouldn't have had any RIS to begin with since they were new. Our concern is when we connect the new storage array, the Smart Array 221 will do the same thing it is doing with the Andataco. Essentially the card "does" see the drives. But under the Smartstart array config it does not see any drives, thus we can not create a logical drive or RAID set. So in a sense the card does see the drives, it just doesn't want to work with them, although they are ironically Compaq SCAs pulled from another 1600R. Never had any problems connecting storage arrays before, but this is the first time connecting a Compaq Smart Array.