EVA5000 - Cache Battery problem

[Suhas Dingare]

The EVA5000 was powered on for the first time and is able to see the hard disks in the Command View. I have also started configuring the Disk Group, Virtual Disks etc.

Now there is a small problem I have noticed. In the Command View Eva menu, under the Enclosure properties, under the Cache Battery System, it shows the Operational State of the Cache Battery System (Battery Module 1 and 2) failed for both the Controllers A and B. It shows Battery Voltage 0.67 V DC for Controller A and 0.57 V DC for Controller B.

Also the "Cache Battery Assembly LED", located on the left side of the Operator Control Panel (OCP) on both the Controllers, shows a red.

Now as per the EVA5000 documentation,
"When the red LED on the battery icon is OFF, the battery assembly is operational. Batteries may be fully charged or charging.
When this LED is ON, the battery system is not operational and requires human intervention."

Also it mentions that

"A status LED in the lower right corner of the cache battery specifies the condition of the cache battery cells.
— This status LED is normally OFF. If any cell fails, its amber status LED will be ON.
— When an amber LED is ON, you must replace the corresponding cache battery."

Do you think that the Cache Batteries on both the Controllers are faulty or is it giving this error because they are not fully charged? I am trying to search more on this on the HP site but in the meantime I would like to know from you if the Cache batteries have really failed.

With Best Regards,

Suhas

[Steven Clementi]

How long has the EVA been off for? Was it drop shipped and this is the first time YOU are powering it up?


You may need to reseat the batteries. Sometimes they get jarred loose during shipment.

How long has the EVA been powered up for? I would think that if the batteries were NOT charged... it should only take, at most, a few hours to get them to a poiont where they are partitally.. if not fully charged.


Steven

[Uwe Zessin]

Agreed, I would let the system run and check the next day (yes, I really mean it).

[Suhas Dingare]

Hi Steven,

Thank you for your quick response.

Yes, it had been more than 6 months since the EVA was shipped and it was now powered on for the first time after a long time, as the Electrical connections were not ready at the client site.

I had kept the EVA on for more than 48 hours, but the Red status on the Controllers is still there. As per your recommendation, I can try to reseat the batteries.

With Regards,

Suhas

[Mohanasundaram_1]

Hi Suhas,

I remember a similar problem at least in 3 EVA systems during installation.

I got a document from HP how to power on the EVA if it was kept powered-off for more than 4-5 days.

In such a case,
1)remove the batteries from their seating
2)Power on the EVA enclosures
3) Power on the EVA controllers
4) re-insert the cache battery modules after controller has initialised.

This will prevent such issues occuring. On 2 occassions when I did not know this and did not follow this, I ended up replacing the batteries.

I had kept these systems for 1 week and they did not recharge the batteries in those 2 cases.

You can try exchanging the battery slots and check.

With regards,
Mohan.

[Suhas Dingare]

Hi Mohan,

So I should replace the cache battery modules, only when the controller power is on.

Thanks for your recommendation. I will try it.

With Regards,

Suhas

[Subhash_5]

hi suhas
have u got the solution or not yet?
please post your outcome
thanks
Subhash

[Pat Obrien_1]

Every one of my EVA has come with startup included. My field guy has started every one and the batteries are charged very shortly after initial power on. I woould contact your FE to discover you issues. It may just be film on battery contacts, or the prior shutdown did not turn off the batteries ater shutdown

[Suhas Dingare]

Hi All,

The reason I did not update was, I have not yet received the batteries. As soon as I get the batteries, I will be able to replace them. I will update the outcome as soon as I get the results.

Thanks and regards,

Suhas

[Suhas Dingare]

Hi All,

I finally replaced the batteries (totally 4- 2 in each controller). They got charged in a short time after replacing them. The problem is solved now.

Thank you all for assisting me in solving the Cache Battery problem.

With Best Regards,

Suhas

[Fabio Regis]

Hello,

I have powered up an EVA5000 yesterday after it had been off for 3 weeks during the summer holidays and I'm now having a similar but not identical problem.

One of the two HSV110 controllers has the red Cache Battery Assembly lit.

In Command View Eva though the batteries for both controllers are 2.33V and the battery charger's operational state for the faulty controller is good as can be seen in the attached screenshot.

Any info on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Fabio Regis

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

> I'm now having a similar but not identical problem.

Please start a new thread for your problem.

That way if someone fixes your problem, you can assign points etc.

By all means reference this thread if necessary.

Cheers,

Rob

[IBaltay]

Hi,
I would like to add all possible combinations here:

Intro/legend

Primary controller PC
Slave controller SC
Disk write back DWB
Disk write through DWT
Primary controller battery PCB
Slave controller battery SCB


a) PCB good/SCB bad => DWB on PC
b) PCB low/SCB bad => DWT on PC
c) PCB bad/SCB bad => no data disk pres.
d) PCB good/SCB low => DWB on PC
e) PCB low/SCB low => DWT on both
f) PCB bad/SCB low => DWT on SC
g) PCB good/SCB good => DWB on both
h) PCB low/SCB good => DWB on SC
i) PCB bad/SCB good => DWB on SC

on some additional details on why both batteries have to be replaced even if only 1 fails see also the thread
http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1261501

[IBaltay]

one additional warning which seems to be obious:
to avoid the battery drain during the extended shutdown:
never simply shutdown EVA via the buttons, but always via the OCP or Commandview EVA. This correct shutdown procedure disables also the batteries and no further (other then very lenghty self discharge rate) drain on the batteries occurs. Therefore it is not necessary to remove them from the systems that will be powered off for a long time

[PDP-Fan]

Today I have powered up an EVA5000 which has been shut down for a couple of months. The batteries were reported as failed and the vdisks could not be presented to a host. (Thex could in the Command View but were not seen by Windows).
After such a long time lead-acid batteries discharge themselves below the minimum voltage. The charger built into the HSV controller is not able to charge them from such a state and declares them unusable. Even a week of charging does not change that because there is actually nor charging at all.

But there is a trick to get the batteries back to life (at leat on the HSV110/EVA5000):

(*** NOT RECOMMENDED FOR UNEXPERIENCED PEOPLE ***)

Open the battery case carefully ant take out the battery cells attached to a PCB. Connect a suitable lead-acid battery charger to the cells directly and charge them.
I connected all three cells in series and applied a charge voltage of 7.5V (3 cells, 2V each).
After 2 hours the batteries came up to a voltage level that allowed re-installation in the EVA... The EVA charger accepted the batteries and started charging them.
Both controllers are working now.

If you have to store an EVA for a longer time it is recommended to remove the batteries from the controller because the discharging is much lower.

[Steve_EVA5000]

PDP-Fan,

I have an EVA 5000 /w 2 x HSV 110 controllers. I bought 12 new X Cell batteries yesterday which were manufactured May 29th 2010. Unfortunately they all have a charge of 2.10v. I installed them into the modules and after inserting them into the controller, CommandView reports the battery modules as Yes Installed and Operational State Good. It also reports the Voltage at 2.12v and Operational State as Low Charge. The battery charger operational state is reported as good as well.

As I understand it, the batteries are too low a charge for the controller to start charging them. If this is correct, to what voltage do you recommend these batteries be charged to? I have a 6v 900mA 3 stage charger which I plan to use with the 3 batteries wired in series. Do you think that this charger is even capable of charging the batteries to where they need to be or do I need to consider a 7.5v charger, like you had used? also how many mA was your charger rated as?

I attached a screen shot of my CommandView battery stats.

Thanks in advance for your reply.
-Steve

[Cliff Wells]

How did you get the pack apart? I thought it would be easy (two visible tabs on the end) but I've made no progress.

[Cliff Wells]

Never mind. Figured it out.