Hot-plug drive in DL360 freezes Windows 2003

[Doug Wogan]

I've had the same problem here with DL360G3's running Windows 2000. I've powered the server down, removed the hdd in slot 1 then powered the server up. So you would think the controller thinks the hdd has failed. It runs fine. I then plug a brand new drive into slot 1 and the server freezes up. All disk activity stops on hdd 0 and hdd 1 shows the red led. I have to power down. When the server comes back up the array rebuilds and everything is good. I've tested this on 3 different G3's and get the same result. I'm willing to bet if I do have a hdd failure I'm going to have to take the server down to replace it. Not cool!

[Franc van de Westelaken_1]

Hi,

now you mention it. Same experience. If the server is powered off I remove the drive. Turn on the server, bios reports interim recovery mode since one drive is missing. Pressing F1 boots Windows 2003 fine. Now, I plug-in the replacement dirve, then the OS freezes comletely. Resetting the server, bios reports Data Recovery Mode because second drive is detected, Windows 2003 boots fine and the mirror is being rebuilt. So hot plugging a drive while the controller is in interim recovery mode doesn't work also. In fact, hot-plugging doesn't work at all when windows 2003 is up and running.

Franc.

[Doug Wogan]

Hey Franc.
I even called HP support and told them what I was experiencing. They pretty much told me if a drive did fail I would be able to plug a new drive in without rebooting. They also said when I turn the box off, pull the drive, and power back on that's not a valid test because the drive didn't actually fail. I guess the controller is smart enough to know that I physically pulled the drive out! I also tested the same thing on a DL360G1 and DL360G2. Both worked fine as far as being able to hot plug the drive and rebuild w/out rebooting and w/out the O/S locking up. The G2 has the same 5i controller as the G3 so it must be a problem with the G3. I have a feeling this message thread will fill up as soon as more people experience hdd failures.
Doug.

[Doug Wogan]

Franc.
One more question. When you replaced your HDD was it because of a HDD failure or were you testing DR?

Also I've tested powering down a DL360G1 w/ Ultra320 drives, removing disk1, powering up, F2, and plugging the drive back in. No lock up and the array rebuilds. So it can't be a problem with the Ultra320 drives.
Doug

[Franc van de Westelaken_1]

Hi Doug,

I pulled the drive when the server was powered down. Not an actual failure though. But hey, it surely is possible that a drive can fail when the server is powered off (bad power or whatever). If that's the case how will the controller tell the difference then how the drive failed ?

Franc.

[Doug Wogan]

Magic! They put little camaras to tell if you actually pulled the drive. I think it's an engineering problem and I hope HP is looking into it. If it truely does work in the case of a hdd failure then I'll stand corrected. Unfortunatly there is no way to know for sure until a hdd does fail. I wouldn't put my name on it!

[Doug Wogan]

Hey Franc.
Check this out.

http://wwss1pro.compaq.com/support/reference_library/viewdocument.asp?source=EX031212_CW01.xml&dt=3

[Franc van de Westelaken_1]

Hi,

thanks for the info. So to be short it's a bug in the firmware revision 2.56 ?

Franc.

[Doug Wogan]

Appears to be.