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Re: ML350 G5 Motherboard replacement

 
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Barry Elliott
Advisor

ML350 G5 Motherboard replacement

Hello everyone. I have had 3 ML350s since 2007 and working great.Now one of the servers is acting very sluggish and 1st SAS Hot swap drive keeps having errors.The IML shows the same and now I am pretty sure the raid controller (E200i) is bad. I think I should replace the motherboard(395566-002) and was wondering about the raid array setup. If all I am doing it swapping out the motherboard and I change the SN and PIN in the setup menu, do I have to rebuild the array? I have 4 - 72 gig drives setup in a raid 10 and 2-500 gig drives just mirroring each other. The performance on the 4 drives is terrible. Outlook PST files are stored and accessed directly from desktops.When a pst file is in need of repair, the system bogs to a standstill and then looses network connection and more corrupt PST files.Some of the files are 3 gig.Thanks for any advice in advance.
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Glenn Matthys
Frequent Advisor
Solution

Re: ML350 G5 Motherboard replacement

You do not have to rebuild the array. Leave the disks as they were, the new Smart Array controller will automatically read the RAID configuration from the disks.

If a disk is bad you need to replace it. Run the Array Diagnostic Utility and read the report. It is no use trying to revive a dead disk.
Barry Elliott
Advisor

Re: ML350 G5 Motherboard replacement

I am confused on where the raid controller is?? I see "Embedded" in the utilities and assumed it was built into the motherboard. Is that correct? What is the card directly behind the drives? Is that the raid controller? There are no cards in any of the rear slots but I do see that card and being directly behind the drives makes me wonder. If it is the controller, I am going to assume then the array would need to be rebuilt?
Glenn Matthys
Frequent Advisor

Re: ML350 G5 Motherboard replacement

Embedded means it's integrated on the motherboard, it's not an add-on card. The card directly behind the drives is called a backplane. It passes along the operating signals from the RAID controller to the drives, supplies power to the drives and allows management tools to identify the physical location of a drive. It also makes it possible to hot-swap drives without pulling cables. And it makes the lights in front of the drives work :-)

Smart Array controllers are capable of reading array information from the disks themselves. If you replace the motherboard (and thus the integrated RAID controller) the new Smart Array will read the configuration from the disk and recreate the logical drives. All you'll have to do is accept the configuration. You will not lose data. (But that doesn't mean you don't have to take backups!)
Barry Elliott
Advisor

Re: ML350 G5 Motherboard replacement

I finally got a motherboard but instead of 439399-001 (395566-002), it is a 461081-001 (395566-003.) Looks nearly identical but E200i stick on chip is different. 1.66 instead of 1.20. I am guessing that is firmware revision.Many of the chips have "updated" stickers.Can I swap out and not lose raid configuration? According to reply to this thread, the raid config is on the drives but with this different but very similar motherboard, are there concerns I should be aware of. Data is backup up on a NAS device but was hoping for a swap out only.
Barry Elliott
Advisor

Re: ML350 G5 Motherboard replacement

Well I changed the motherboard and after 3 reboots all logical drives were back and almost every thing is good except the original problem remains. I want to thank you for advice on not losing array.Drive in slot one will not rebuild. I have replaced 3 times.Here are events:

"Due to an unrecoverable read error, the recovery of logical drive 1 configured on array controller [Embedded] was aborted while rebuilding a physical drive.

The physical drive which was being rebuilt is located in bay 1 of box 1 which is connected to port 1I of array controller [Embedded] .

The physical drive that reported the read error is located in bay 3 of box 1 which is connected to port 1I of array controller [Embedded]."

Then after that I get:

"Drive Array Logical Drive Status Change. Logical drive number 1 on the array controller in Slot 0 has a new status of 6.
(Logical Drive status values: 1=other, 2=ok, 3=failed, 4=unconfigured, 5=recovering, 6=readyForRebuild, 7=rebuilding, 8=wrongDrive, 9=badConnect, 10=overheating, 11=shutdown, 12=expanding, 13=notAvailable, 14=queuedForExpansion)
[SNMP TRAP: 3034 in CPQIDA.MIB]"

and then I get:

"Drive Array Physical Drive Status Change. The physical drive in Slot 0, Port 1I Box 1 Bay 1 with serial number "DQA7P7A00TLM0741", has a new status of 2.
(Drive status values: 1=other, 2=ok, 3=failed, 4=predictiveFailure)
[SNMP TRAP: 3046 in CPQIDA.MIB]"

I have replaced the motherboard (embedded E200i) and the drive with 3 different drives.
Any help would be appreciated.
J├╢rgen Gustavsson
Occasional Advisor

Re: ML350 G5 Motherboard replacement

Hi.
I hate to be the bringer of bad news but I think you have a major problem.
The reason for the failed rebuild is another broken disk. You get read errors on drive 3 when its trying to rebuild onto drive 1.

I hope you have a good backup because you are probably going to need it. :-(

// Jorgen
Barry Elliott
Advisor

Re: ML350 G5 Motherboard replacement

OK then. I need advice. I think the array needs to be replaced/rebuilt as more errors are showing up. I have backups but the issue is there are 2 logical drives-one is 4 72gb drives in a raid 1+0 setup and 2 500 gb drives mirroring each other. I want to get 4 new 72 gb drives and just rebuild that logical drive. The main reason is downtime. A lot less data to restore plus no need to rebuild the second logical as no issues. Can just 1 of the logicals be rebuilt? How do I make sure I do not lose the 2nd logical drive data?
LuckyP_1
Frequent Advisor

Re: ML350 G5 Motherboard replacement

Barry, If you do not have OS Volumes on 4x72GB logical drive, you can take a data back up and delete that logical volume from ACU, and create a new logical drive using these hard drives and restore the data.

In case, if you have OS on this logical drive then it's recommended to take back up of both Logical drive and Delete the Array and do the entire process from scratch.

The reason for second suggestion is, when you delete Logical drive1 (Which has the OS), after deletion Logical drive becomes, Logical drive 1 and it always wants OS on it for Smart array to work correctly.

Many repeated issues with Logical drive/ Array comes due to corruption of RAID information,if in case you had a bad experience with repeated failure of drives/weired issues with Array, please delete/Erase everyting and give a new soul to server Array Controller.
LuckyP_1
Frequent Advisor

Re: ML350 G5 Motherboard replacement

*Correction

The reason for second suggestion is, when you delete Logical drive1 (Which has the OS), after deletion Logical drive1,Logical drive 2 becomes Logical drive 1 and it always wants OS on it for Smart array to work correctly.