DL360 G4 drive failure after POST

[Tim Cooke (UK)]

Hi,
One of our DL360 G4s was showing a battery failure on the write cache enabler. After disconnecting all power, replacing the battery and reconnecting everything, both drives are coming up as failed (the green arrow lights up, then after about 10 seconds the drive failed light comes on).

I tried removing the cache enabler but that didn't change anything, so it has been reinstalled.

I've run through the suggestions in the Matinenance and Troubleshooting guide. The connections all appeared properly seated.

I've run both Insight Diagnostics and Array Diagnostics - neither shows any errors except to say the array is not configured and the battery has low charge (because it's new, I assume).

I've tried replacing both drives with new U320 36.4GB 15K drives, but those show as failed too.

I've wiped the NVRAM, but no luck seeing original or old drives.

Any suggestions what I can try next?

TIA
Tim

[MT19]

I just had this same exact issue when I started my day on Monday with a DL360 G4p. It ended up being the integrated controller, so I had to replace the system board. After the replacement, both drives showed up as green and the server booted up with no data loss.
MT

[predrag81]

Hi Tim,

1. try to update ACU, ADU, SMH.
2. than update HDD FW
3. than update controller FW to be sure that we are up to date
4. and than if problem still there replace backplane

Good luck,
Predrag

[Tim Cooke (UK)]

Hi Pradrag,
I assume updating ADU, ACU, etc. would just be a case of using a newer SmartStart CD - will give that a go.

The smart array firmware I can see on the downloads site is the Online version, which looks like it needs Windows to run, so how do I flash the array if I can't boot to Windows?

Will upgrading the HDD firmware impact any data on the drives and where would I find the firmware/non-windows installer for that?

Thanks
Tim

[predrag81 · Accepted solution]

1. I assume updating ADU, ACU, etc. would just be a case of using a newer SmartStart CD - will give that a go.

-YES, BUT THERE IS SOME KNOWN ISSUES(BBWC BATTERY STATUS FAILED) WHICH ARE SOLVED REGARDING TO VERSION UPDATE

2. The smart array firmware I can see on the downloads site is the Online version, which looks like it needs Windows to run, so how do I flash the array if I can't boot to Windows?

3. Will upgrading the HDD firmware impact any data on the drives and where would I find the firmware/non-windows installer for that?

- YOU CAN DOWNLOAD FIRMWARE MAINTENANCE CD(UP TO DATE VER IS 8.20) AND UPDATE CONTROLLER AND HDD'S FW IN OFFLINE STATE WITHOUT LOSING DATA, BUT BACKUP IS ALLWAYS RECOMMENDED
YOU JUST PUT CD TO BOOT AND CHOOSE WHAT ARE YOU WANT TO UPDATE, BUT BE CAUTIOUS!

KR
PREDRAG

[Tim Cooke (UK)]

Thanks Predrag. Have started download of CD so will try that and post back later.
Tim

[predrag81]

Ok Tim,

good luck

Predrag

[Tim Cooke (UK)]

Problem solved... through me not actually doing things properly.

When the manual says to check the connections are seated properly, it is advisable to actually remove them and plug them back in again and not just look and them and think they are seated correctly! The SCSI backplane wasn't seated into the mainboard connector properly.

However, as a result, I've now learnt a bit more about servers and have the latest Proliant firmware CD so can update our other servers when needed.

Thanks again for the advice.

Tim

[Tim Cooke (UK)]

Check SCSI backplane connector is seated properly after doing any work on mainboard (physically remove and reseat it - don't just look and assume it is seated correctly).