cpqary3 notice in Solaris box "Surface Analysis Pass Information, LDrv=0 Number of passes=xx"

[khaniqshahid]

Hi Team

I have following hardware

Hardware version: HP BL460c G8

System ROM: 12/14/2012
ILO 4: 1.13
Smart Array P220i: 3.42

Please provide suggestion what causing this issue appearing in my Solaris-10 Box i86pc x64. It is appearing in three of the servers and all of them are on same ROM and above stated firmware version.

root@sol-box1:/# cat /var/adm/messages | egrep "Smart|Surface"
Mar 4 17:48:26 sol-box1 cpqary3: [ID 823470 kern.notice] NOTICE: Smart Array P220i Controller
Mar 4 17:48:26 sol-box1 cpqary3: [ID 823470 kern.notice] Surface Analysis Pass Information, LDrv=0 Number of passes=61
Mar 5 17:48:26 sol-box1 cpqary3: [ID 823470 kern.notice] NOTICE: Smart Array P220i Controller
Mar 5 17:48:26 sol-box1 cpqary3: [ID 823470 kern.notice] Surface Analysis Pass Information, LDrv=0 Number of passes=62
Mar 7 17:48:26 sol-box1 cpqary3: [ID 823470 kern.notice] NOTICE: Smart Array P220i Controller
Mar 7 17:48:26 sol-box1 cpqary3: [ID 823470 kern.notice] Surface Analysis Pass Information, LDrv=0 Number of passes=63
Mar 9 17:48:26 sol-box1 cpqary3: [ID 823470 kern.notice] NOTICE: Smart Array P220i Controller
Mar 9 17:48:26 sol-box1 cpqary3: [ID 823470 kern.notice] Surface Analysis Pass Information, LDrv=0 Number of passes=64

OS version: SunOS sol-box1 5.10 Generic_147441-27 i86pc i386 i86pc

Installed cpqary3 details:

  # modinfo | grep -i smart
      41 fffffffff7917000 1af40 32 1 cpqary3 (HP Smart Array Driver Ver 2.5.0)
 
# pkginfo | grep HP
      system CPQary3 HP Smart Array Controller Driver
      system HPFC Agilent Fibre Channel HBA Driver
# pkginfo -l CPQary3
       PKGINST: CPQary3
       NAME: HP Smart Array Controller Driver
      CATEGORY: system
      ARCH: i386
      VERSION: 2.5.0,Rev=2011.09.09.02.50
       BASEDIR: /
       VENDOR: Hewlett-Packard Company
      DESC: HP Smart Array Controller Driver
      PSTAMP: neches030924165540
      INSTDATE: Nov 26 2013 11:13
      HOTLINE: Please contact your local service provider
      STATUS: completely installed
      FILES: 17 installed pathnames
      14 shared pathnames
      11 directories
      3 executables
      723 blocks used (approx)

[Matti_Kurkela]

This does not look like an error message. Probably it is just a notification that the RAID controller has completed yet another round of disk surface analysis.

The disk surface analysis is an automatic background task in the RAID controller, and its purpose is to detect disk failures as soon as possible.

The Release Notes for the CPQary3 driver version 2.5.0 say that this version has "updated handling of controller events". That might be an explanation why  these messages appear: older driver versions may have ignored this information, even though it would have been available at the hardware level.