Ml110 G5 Embedded Sata RAID nightmare.

[Steve Panovski]

Proliant ML-110 G5
4 x Seagate 1TB Sata Drives
Single RAID 10 Volume
with 1 OS Partition & 1 Data Partition all NTFS
Windows Server 2003 x86

A few days ago I got a Smart Failure event on Sata port 0 during power on with a message stating my array is degraded however the system wont boot. I just get a "Operating System Not Found Message".

It was my understanding that the RAID 10 array will still operate in a degraded state even while sustaining a 2 drive failure will still allowing it to function until a replacement drive can be used to rebuild it.

I tried using the SmartArray boot cd but the embedded controller is not supported. I have a replacement drive on order but im scared that installing it and getting into the RAID bios menu for a rebuild wont correct my boot problem.

Are there any boot cd's I can try that support the embedded sata raid to see whats going on?

Any advice would be appreciated.


Steve

[Trygve Henriksen]

That is strange.

It really should boot off the RAID no problem with a drive failed.
I would try downloading a Linux LiveCD and see if it can read the disks.
(If it can 'see' the disks, it should be easy enough to verify if the file systems are intact.)

The built-in SATA-Raid controller on this server is a joke.
I'd get hold of an E200 controller and a 'Cable Assy, int 4Lane, SAS/SATA, HDS' cable kit. (Part number 457892-001 according to a box I have on my desk)
Much better controller.
I'm using it in all my ML110 G5/G6 servers.

Also, you have 4 disks in one RAID10 array?
you should really rethink that.
It's a good idea to keep the OS and Data on separate RAIDs. A crashed array will then only take down one part.

[Steve Panovski]

Trygve,

Thanks for the response. My knowledge of linux is limited to some work I did about 10 years ago, how do I determine if a particular Linux Live CD has support for the onboard RAID controller? Do you have any recommendations for a particular distro with tools to use against the array? I believe the equivalent â chkdskâ command for linux was â fsckâ , is that OK to run against a mounted NTFS partition? Will it even recognize the file system?

Regarding your RAID10 comment please explain. This server is used to capture video from several cameras. I created the RAID10 volume and carved off 100 gb for OS and the remaining 1700 gb for videos. If I had used RAID1, I would have been limited 1tb OS volume and 1tb data volume unless im missing something. Is there a best practice method I should have done? Maybe add 2 additional smaller drives and use that for the OS?

Thank you for the controller recommendation. I have another Ml110 G5 with the E200i w/BBWC, however its significantly slower when using SATA drives . It couldnâ t handle the multiple video feeds so we use it as a light file & print server.

[Jimmy Vance]

Are you sure it was setup as RAID 10? I'm pretty sure when the RAID function of the embedded SATA controller is enabled in that system the options are either RAID 0 or RAID 1

[LuckyP_1]

Sometimes these issue happen due to increased number of read/write errors on hard drive and i believe SATA drives on this controller do not have enough kind of error reporting mechanism. There are the chances that one drive was failed and other was in good number of read/write errors and now not allowing OS to boot.

To check this, you can boot the server with Easy set up CD and go to insight diagnostics and choose Diagnose tab to Diagnose Logical drive.

This CD is available at:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3577708&prodNameId=3577715&swEnvOID=4024&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-d35cfe8601c74a4d89ea6a06bc

[Steve Panovski]

@ Jimmy,

I am positive its a RAID 10 Array. The embedded doesnt support RAID 5 due to the lack of BBWC.

@ Lucky,

You are correct the Easy Setup CD was able to recognize the drives and I ran the diagnostics first when I got the error. Everything checks out except the Sata Port 00 Smart Failure, just as the RAID controller reported. The setup cd doesnt offer any array tools/checks that are compatible. I want to explorer the Linux Rescue disk but need some hand holding. Im not sure what distro to use and what tools or commands to try. Would a Win7 recovery CD allow me to run CHKDSK against the volume and fix MBR (assume it has a driver for it).

Steve

[LuckyP_1]

I don't think that Linux Live CD/ Win7 CD are going to read the drives, as drive is in RAID and part of array. I am not sure, if still you would have any option to perform any kind of maintenance.

Have you used the diagnose Tab under Insight diagnostics S/W and diagnosed the drive.

Using Test tab might not be a better option to find out error with drive.

Recommendations to determine drive fault on Embedded SATA card:

Install HP Embedded G5 SATA RAID Controller Manager for Windows Server 2003/2008 x64 Editions
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3577708&prodNameId=3577715&swEnvOID=4024&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-0ab0b45297114be080668cb6fa

This would help you to detect drive failure issues when OS is running. if you have any other servers with same setup, please install this SW.

[yankee-doo]

Hi steve,

did you ever resolve this ? we have today got an ml110 g5 with a failed disk and wont boot saying 'operating system not found'

any help would be appreciated.