Multiple problems with Integrated SMART array controller with Proliant 8500

[Andrew Heyn]

Hi,

I have a compaq proliant 8500. It has an integrated smart array controller. Whenever I use this controller with "Array accelerator enabled" (which is the 8mb of read-operation-only of built-in cache) through the smartstart array configuration software for my one and only raid container, I get tons of soft and hard errors and my system doesn't even usually boot up.
So, I disabled that, and the system boots...
Now, every 1-3 days, there will be a drive in the raid container that just "red-lights" and is marked bad. All four drives in the array at one time or another were marked this way, and reinserting the drives made the controller accept the drive again. Considering these are four drives, it's really doubtful that they all are really bad, especially because accesses seem to work just fine.
I have two of COMPAQ BF01865222, and two of COMPAQ AB018335B9. System bios is dated 05/05/2003. The array controller has the newest firmware, which is 1.50.
Thanks in advance,
Andrew

[kcpant]

Dear Andrew,

For your first que, the problem might be in the cache memory of SA card. for the second problem, several posibilities:

1.dust between contacts , clean the contacts on cage and reseat HDDs ( do it one-by-one).
2.some loose connections to cage back-plane, check all connections to that and firm them tightly.
3. back-plane is faulty, or the sCSI cable connecting it to the SA card is faulty, replace it.

try these things 1 by 1 and let us know what you found

[Andrew Heyn]

The contacts at the back of the module are dust free, and don't really seem like they would be dust-prone... The hard drives have been reseated many, many times.

The male connector where the module connects to is intact, and isn't wobbly or loose in any manner.

There is no cable that connects any Smart Array card to anything else. The COMPAQ Integrated SMART array controller is built into the I/O module and the only cables in this whole system that I see are two on the disk module, one for the ide cdrom, and one for the floppy. All connections are made through a proprietary connector which happens to have a ton of pins (looks similar to CPU module connectors).

I see that the array controller has a SymBios chip.