DL380 G5 P800 Battery Replacement

[tigaheli]

Server is a DL380 G5. I read that the cache battery for a P800 needs to be replaced every 3 years. I have a spare battery, with a date of 07/12 on it. The part number is 398648-001.

My question is, as far as the date goes, is that the manufacture date, expiration date, or replace by date?

[Lincy_Zachariah · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Though i am not very sure what the date stands for, HP recommends replacing battery every 3 years.

It will warm you when the battery needs to be replaced. Sometime firmware updates helps but its recommended to replace the battery every 3 years.

Click here to refer to HP Smart Array Controllers for HP ProLiant Servers User Guide

[xmate]

It is a manufacture date.

The reason is that the battery degrades during working charge/discharge cycles. And the time of battery discharge slowly decreases during the usage period. For example with a new battery the time to hold cache data is about 3 days. After several years (a lot of cycles) it may be 2 days or less. So the battery doesn't protect your data long enough.

Different controllers act in different ways.

Some have an opportunity to measure voltage and some other characteristics of real battery state and notifies when the battery becomes bad.

Some of controllers have a predefined battery usage period (3 years may be) and controller knows a battery "start usage date". And after that period it doesn't mean that the battery is not working. But HP decided it is a period the most batteries become degraded and the controller marks the battery as expired. Some controllers provide the user an ability to reset "start usage date". SO you can go on using the old battery, but is not recomended. You'd better replace the battery.

[Nicolai Rasmussen]

The P800 will tell you when the batteries are failed and needs replacing. Unfortunately you don't get a warning, so if you want to replace them BEFORE they fail, here's a little tip:

You need to "monitor" the physical apperance of the batteries.

I've replaced hundreds of P400/P800 batteries and a common fault that they all seem to share, is that they will start becoming "chubby" before they fail. I guess it's caused by some sort of acid leakage. I've yet to see a battery actually leak fluid, but I've seen some pretty chubby ones :-o

When you run your fingers over the top of the battery, it should be completely flat. If they have started to bulge out, it's time to replace them.

I have batteries from 07/07 still working today, so I'd say that  replacing the batteries every 3 years is very much on the safe side.

Disclaimer: I have seen non-chubby batteries fail too, so this is not a completely failproof system to follow ;-)

[tigaheli]

Thank you so much! I've replaced tons of batteries in the past, but the date printed on the battery was drving me nuts. I spent like two hours trying ot dig up ANY information on that battery label.

[tigaheli]

Thank you! :D I read someplace that the battery getting 'chubby' is because of gasses that build up in the battery as the chemistry of the battery changes over time. When the battery gets fat, or splits, it's the gasses being released and killing the battery before damage is caused to the system.

I've seen some get all kinds of explodey.

[Lincy_Zachariah]

In NiMH batteries, the charging and discharging processes create and recombine inert gases, which can

cause the button cell to swell in size by as much as 20%. Battery packs are designed to stop charging before

excess swelling occurs.

However, if excess swelling does occur, a pressure mechanism within the button cell releases these non-toxic,

non-corrosive gases before the cell incurs physical damage. If this pressure release occurs, the battery no

longer charges properly, and the storage solution reports a failed battery

[seckindemir]

Hi

I have a problem with array accelarator.  I got the folowing message " 263 - The current array controller has one or more array accelarator batteries that are failed. See the "more information" page for details. Array accelarator operations such as Expansion, extention...are temporarily suspended...." (HP Proliant DL 380 G5 , RAID 6 , P800 controller, HP MSA storageworks )

Should I replace the batteries or array controller, totally ?

Replacement can cause data loss, system crash? or is there any other precaution which needs to be taken ?

Thanks in advance, Regards,

[JD613]

I have never replaced the battery before.  Will I lose my raid config if i power off the machine and change the battery?

[Torsten.]

No.

The battery will hold the cache in case of power loss.

Without a battery you won't have write cache enabled.

Just replace the batteries, all configuration data is on the disks.