ML350 G4 and Ultra320 Hard drive speed

[Aldous Leung]

Hi,
My customer has ML350 G4 with Smart Array 641 and 5 Ultra320 hard drives connected. In Array configuration utility, 3 of the drives are showing speed at ultra2 (40MB/s) and one showing ultra2 (80MB/s) and one showing Ultra320 (320MB/s). I've installed latest firmware to the System Bios, Array controller and all hard drives with the recent HP firmware CD. I still have the same result. What should I do to bring all drives to ultra320 speed? Please help,

Thanks very much
Aldous

[TTr]

> to bring all drives to ultra320 speed?

Are all the drives Ultra320 capable? Check out their model nmbers to see if the can do u320.

[Aldous Leung]

Yes, all drives are ultra320 capable.

[TTr]

What kind of drives are they? hot plug or non hot plug? And does the server utilize the upper 3-drive cage? Check the wiring. With hot plug drives, sometimes the cage is split into two buses, 2-drive and 4-drive and there are terminators involved.

Identify which drive bays have drives running at lower speeds and maybe can correlate something.

Any 50-pin devices attached or any external devices? You need to verify all the cabling and any terminators that may be in use.


http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00218201/c00218201.pdf

pages 80, 81

[Aldous Leung]

All hard drives are hot-plug and no other device attached to the array controller. I ran the array diagnostic and attached the report here.

[TTr]

According to the report, the drive in 1:2 has failed. It is possible that the failed drive is causing these inconsistencies in the cabling and resulting the reduced SCSI speed settings. You should replace that drive immediately. Then the speed settings should return to normal.

[Aldous Leung]

Sorry, I attached the old report in my previous post. There was one drive failed last week and I had replaced the failed drive on the weekend. All drives are showing good now. I re-run the array diagnostic and attached the new report here.

[TTr]

Actually it is worse than you think. Drives 1,2,3 are running in narrow mode, Drive 4 is only at U320, drive 5 is at wide but U2.
This is from your ADUReport.
---------------------------
Drive 1:1
Wide SCSI Down Shifted to Narrow SCSI Warning
Ultra SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational
Ultra2 SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational

Drive 1:2
Wide SCSI Down Shifted to Narrow SCSI Warning
Ultra SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational
Ultra2 SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational

Drive 1:3
Wide SCSI Down Shifted to Narrow SCSI Warning
Ultra SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational
Ultra2 SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational

Drive 1:4
Wide SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational
Synchronous Transfers Enabled Informational
Ultra SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational
Ultra2 SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational
U320 Transfers Informational

Drive 1:5
Wide SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational
Synchronous Transfers Enabled Informational
Ultra SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational
Ultra2 SCSI Transfers Enabled Informational
-------------------------

I really can't see anything that would cause this. Check the OEM model on each drive (there is a HP P/N BF146... and an OEM model number, maybe from Seagate, something like ST3146... Verify that the OEM models are U320 drives.

Other than that it is possible that the internal electronics of the drives get weak and they can not handle the strong and fast signals of the U320 mode. So when the controller tests them at U320 they don't send back a good signal and the the controller has to downgrade them.

[Aldous Leung]

To find out the OEM model, I think I have to pull the drive out, right?

Will this cause any problem other than performance slow down?

Thanks,
Aldous

[TTr]

Yes you have to pull the drives. But avoid doing that because when you plug the drive back in, it might go through a rebuild process.

See if you can schedule a server shutdown and pull the drives. Also pulling and re-inserting the drives may clear the contacts between the drive and the drive slot so it might help with the problem that you have.