P440ar Array Controller Gen9 problem with different sets of harddrives

[Max3214]

Hello community,

I have a strange problem for which I seek advice. The system is a DL380 Gen9 (SFF version) with a Smart Array P440ar controller (+ battery) which shows an odd error message depending on the set of harddisks configured. All updates to firmware components are installed (e.g., System ROM 2.80, Smart Array Controller 7.0, HP Intelligent Provisioning 2.82).

What happened? Initially, I configured 2x 300GB HPE SAS harddisks in a RAID-1 (Bay 1+2) and another 300GB HPE SAS harddisk as auto-replacing hot spare in HPSSA (Bay 3). After the reboot, I installed Debian which was incredibly slow. After the reboot, I already received a warning message "1716-Slot 0 Drive Array: Unrecoverable media errors detected on drives during previous rebuild or background surface analysis (ARM) scan. Errors will be fixed automatically when the sector(s) are overwritten. Backup and restore are recommended" at boot-up or "966 Logical Drive 1: Unrecoverable media errors detected on drives during previous rebuild or background surface analysis (ARM) scan. Errors will be fixed automatically when the sector(s) are overwritten. Backup and restore are recommended" at HPSSA. The system information for storage in ILO showed "Controller status: failed". I found somewhere the recommendation to erase all disks with zeroes. After about 2 hours with essentially no progress (i.e., 2% completion) in HPSSA, I stopped the process.

I removed the array in HPSSA and also removed the third hard disk. I created a new RAID-1 with just two of the three harddisks (so no hot-spare in HPSSA) and all went fine. The Debian installation was super fast and I repeated the Debian installation successfully (i.e., also super fast) for the other two RAID-1 harddisk combinations of 300GB HPE SAS disks. As soon as any 300GB HPE SAS hot-spare was additionally configured in HPSSA, the problem occurred again.

Finally, I removed all 300GB HPE SAS harddisks and repeated the installation with 2x 900 GB NON-HPE SAS harddisks. All was fine again (almost as expected), but now the third 900 GB NON-HPE SAS harddisks was also successfully configured as hot-spare harddisk and the system remains to be super fast. I repeated the configuration with a different order of 900 GB NON-HPE SAS harddisks to see whether it might simply be a faulty Bay 3 - but no, it works also well. Several removals of 900 GB NON-HPE SAS harddisks in different Bays and subsequent rebuilds (after plugging them in again) work fine and the systems remains fast. No error messages anywhere.

Does anybody have a clue how to identify the root cause of the RAID errors related to the 3x 300 GB HPE SAS harddisks with hot-spare configuration? Why does any combination of just two of the three 300 GB HPE SAS harddisks work just fine but as soon as any hot-spare device is added, the raid-harddisk combination seems to break.

Thanks and best regards,

Max

[SanjeevGoyal]

Hello,

I read complete information if you are looking for RCA.

You have to log proper a case with the HPE tech support and share the latest AHS report and ADU reports for deep drive analysis.

ADU report and AHS report will show the exact error of what happened and what is a further requirement.

Here I can share the below advisory. I hope it will help you.

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=c03014078

If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!   

Regards,

[Max3214]

Thanks, Sanjeev!

Regarding the advisory that you linked, I can share that the HPE drive model differs, the drive firmware is updated as well as the RAID controller differs (it is a P440ar).

Interestingly, I had moved the three 300GB HPE SAS harddisks into another Gen9 server (essentially the same specs, also completely updated, P440ar, ...) this weekend and all was fine. Removal of different harddisks combinations and subsequent rebuilds all worked fine.

Anyone perhaps a clue where to look for the error?

[SanjeevGoyal]

Hello,

If everything is working fine, what is your next query.

Please explain?

Regards,