ML350 G5 server - RAID5 HD Replacement / Smart Array E200i Battery Charge Low

[scooter25]

Hello,

I have two issues reported through iLO2 IML for a ML350 G5 Server:

1) 1720-S.M.A.R.T. Hard Drive Detects Imminent Failure

2) 1794-Drive Array - Array Accelerator Battery Charge Low

I have replaced the array accelerator battery (307132-001) last week but it still reports the battery charge low issue. I still need to update the array controller firmware.

My question is:

Should I replace the degraded hard drive (in a RAID5 - 3 HD 300GB each) first before trying to further resolve the battery charge low issue?

Thank you in advance for any insight in to these issues.

[AMRIT RANJAN]

You can replace the HDD, let it rebuild and update SA firmware

Cheers,

Amrit

[scooter25]

Thanks for your response Amrit.

The server host is running ESXi 4.0 with 3 VM guests running Windows Server 2008.

Once I hot-swap the degraded hard drive with a new one, what tools can I use to monitor the RAID rebuilding process?

Thank you in advance.

The ML350 G5 server

[waaronb]

FYI, if it's still reporting the battery charge as low after 1 week, it doesn't sound like the replacement is charging that well.

Normally after a power cycle, if it sees a low charge on the cache battery, it seems like it tries charging it for about 20-24 hours. If the charge is *still* low after that, then it says you have a bad battery.

You might want to check the status again and see if it's reporting it as bad or if it finally charged up.

I don't use ESX so I'm not sure what HP software they have, like the SAS or ACU utilities, but I'd check for those first.

[scooter25]

Thanks for your reply waaronb.

I will try the vmware website for any information regarding ESXi and the smart array firmware update.

[waaronb]

If you go to the HP download portal for your model number, the ML350 G5, you can pick the VMWare ESX operating system (whichever version you have).

I think to upgrade firmware you'll need to download the firmware update DVD or the latest SPP (if it even supports the G5 models anymore?) and boot from it to update anything.

The latest SPP downloads are all "entitlement only" so you need an active support contract, but you should still be able to download the latest Linux "scexe" version of any firmware updates and do a USB boot method.

The last firmware update DVD that HP released was 10.10 and you can get it here:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/cd/p1040529012/v71197/firmware-10.10-0.zip

That probably does NOT have the latest P400 firmware though...just FYI.  Version 7.24 for the P400 is dated Sep 2012 which is after that firmware 10.10 disc was available.   But like I said, you can go to the Redhat downloads and get the SCEXE version and do a USB key boot to upgrade that.

For anything newer than the middle of 2012, you need the SPP's that replaced firmware and smartstart discs... you can still find the older versions of those before HP made their change to "entitlement only", so the updates you need might be on one of those.