MSA500 - Cannot delete Array

[Chris - LFDCS]

Hi all,

I have an HP Smart Array Cluster Storage device attached to a DL380 G4. I am in the ACU, accessed from the SmartStart CD.

There are 14 drives in this array, and all are the same. When in the ACU, I see 12 drives listed as "unassigned". OK, great.

The other 2 are in "Parallel SCSI Array A - 1 Logical Drive(s)". It is a RAID 1.

I wish to delete this.

Simple enough, right? Well, it doesn't work... It gets to the point where it says "Deleting" on the right side of the screen, and the little animated progress bar stays moving, but it sits like this forever.

While this goes on, on the array itself, the two drives in question (in bays 8 & 10) are flashing amber. In addition, the amber "yield" LED is on, the "light bulb" LED is solid green, and the "wavy, medical thingy" LED is flashing green.

HELP! I can't do anything with this until I get this resolved. There is NO data and no worry. I just need to get the array working. Ultimately, I will configure it as a RAID 10 using all 14 drives.

Thanks!

Chris

[Johan Guldmyr]

Have you tried to use another version of the smartstart CD?

There is also a serial interface on the MSA, maybe you can try to delete it from there?

[Chris - LFDCS]

Hi, and thanks for the response. I don't even know how to connect via serial, nor would I know how to run the ACU that way. Can you help so I can try?

And as far as different versions are concerned, I've only tried SmartStart (the latest, I think 8.3.x). But I also tried doing this via the ACU in Windows... When that failed, I booted from SmartStart.

Failing all that, what would happen if I removed these two "problem" drives, and maybe put 'em elsewhere?

Can I "factory reset" the entire array? Has to be possible... If so, how? Thanks!

Chris

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hi, well you can't run the ACU from the serial cable.

You would need to use a terminal emulator (like hyperterm in Windows, or putty) to get in there.

You use the service port at the front of the MSA.

Cable you need to use is a RJ-45Z.
Looks like it's fairly similar to the MSA1000 and MSA1500.

MSA500Guides can be found here:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&contentType=SupportManual&docIndexId=64180&prodSeriesId=316563&prodTypeId=15351

There are two MSA500 guides, one is 7MB one is about 2.. but they look about the same.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodClassId=-1&contentType=SupportManual&docIndexId=64180&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=377751

Is a link to the MSA1000. Check out the reference guide there and CLI guide. Page 29 tells you how to delete a LUN.

See all the delete commands on page 18. If you use all them that's about as clean as you can make the MSA.

What do you mean with putting the disks elsewhere? Changing place with another disk? That should not cause any major issues as you don't have any arrays configured. Could be worth a shot but you would still have the broken array inside ACU I guess.

[Chris - LFDCS]

Hi again,

I've looked through every guide I can fond at the above link (even looked on pages 18 & 29 as suggested) of several and see nothing about what the commands are. I must be blind. Can you direct me to how to simply wipe this thing? I mean clean. Just default it or something close to it.

I've made a little headway through the ACU, but still cannot get this beast squared away! Erf...

THANKS!

Chris

[Johan Guldmyr]

http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01183955/c01183955.pdf

that are the CLI commands you can run via serial cable. No "factory default" command as far as I can see.