URGING: All disks unaccessible (6 solid amber lights)

[Rene Doiron]

Setup:
HP ProLiant DL380 G3
Controller #1: Smart Array 5i (2 physical disks of 36G each)
Controller #2: Smart Array 6400 (4 physical disks of 74G each)

History of problem:
After attempting a server restore from tape, I received a blue screen and the lights on all disks turned from green to solid amber/orange.
I then turned off the server and attempted to reboot. It is impossible to get the server to detect any disk I put in.

I even tried 2 brand new disks in the main array and it won't detect them.
When I try to create a new logical drive I get an error saying that there are no physical drive in the system.
I get the exact same problem on BOTH controllers.
I tried swapping the disks to different locations... nothing works

I updated the firmware using Smart Update 7.9... did not improve.

I used Smart Manager 7.9 to erase all configuration including CMOS. Same problem.

This is where I sit... Server will not detect any disk I put in, all disks gives a solid amber light.

Any help will be appreciated.

[Rene Doiron]

I forgot to mention,

I don't care about the data lost... All I am trying to do is to get the server up and running again with usable drives. I can restore from tape later on.

Thanks

[RaMpaNTe]

Ok so the HDDs are not failed, chances are minimum. Now if you are using 2 controllers you have to have the backplane in duplex mode, otherwise they won't be detected by the controller, other thing to check is that the cabling from the controllers to the backplane are in the correct place and that they are not conflicting each other.

[RaMpaNTe]

OK to illustrate a little bit more, say that you are standing in front of the server, the drives IDs are as follows

| _ 5 _ | _ 3 _ | _ 1 _ |
-------------------------
| _ 4 _ | _ 2 _ | _ 0 _ |

Simplex/Duplex Configuration

The ProLiant DL380 Generation 3 server supports single-channel or dual-channel hard drive configurations. The single-channel configuration (simplex) supports up to six hard drives on one channel.

The dual-channel configuration (duplex) supports two hard drives on one channel (SCSI IDs 0 and 1) and up to four hard drives on the other channel (SCSI IDs 2 through 5). The SCSI IDs for both simplex and duplex configurations are illustrated above. Always populate hard drive bays starting with the lowest SCSI ID.

The simplex/duplex SCSI backplane supports four cabling configurations, including:

* Integrated simplex - All internal hard drives are using the embedded Smart Arrary 5i Plus controller that controls up to six hard drives through one SCSI bus. The server ships standard with this configuration.
* Integrated duplex - All internal hard drives are using the embedded Smart Array 5i Plus Controller that controls up to six hard drives through two SCSI buses:
* PCI simplex - All internal hard drives are using an optional PCI array controller that controls up to six hard drives through one SCSI bus.
* PCI duplex - All internal hard drives are split between two SCSI controllers. The embedded Smart Array 5i Plus Controller is connected up to two hard drives on one SCSI bus and the optional PCI array controller installed into an available PCI slot controls up to four hard drives on the other SCSI bus.

Your configuration based on your description would be the last one, PCI Duplex. {Click on the Paper Clip icon on the upper right corner of this reply so you can see a picture of the cabling}

Item | Component Description | SCSI IDs managed
1 | Short SCSI cable 0, 1
2 | Long SCSI cable to PCI controller 2,3,4,5
3 | Terminator board | N/A


Hope this can be helpful.

Thanks
\RaMpaNTe

PS Say thanks with points ;)

[tomasz.puchalski]

hello
if data are not important please try procedure "clear and reset system configuration settings"
i attached two pages from manual
please let me know if its works

[tomasz.puchalski]

Whole manual:
http://h30125.www3.hp.com/hpcsn/km/utils/ViewDocument.aspx?code=TINF:8:FIS1&DocID=emr_na-c01125247-1&LanguageCode=en

[Rene Doiron]

Thanks for the info guys,

The machine is already setup as PCI duplex. I double checked the cabling config: everything is in it's right place and plugged in tight.

Still wont detect a single disk I put in...

any other ideas?

[Rene Doiron]

I didn't try the procedure "clear and reset system configuration settings" but I did run the erase utility from Smart Start 7.9 which I believe does the exact same thing (erase CMOS and NVRAM)...

[RaMpaNTe]

Hello, well at this point we might be facing a HW failure, so in order to know and isolate what component is broken I would suggest you the following.

Remove the duplex configuration and the PCI controller, then use all 6 drives connected to the 5i controller and test them. See if the controller detects the hdds and if it detects all of them.

Do the same but this time do not use the 5i and use only the PCI controller.

If with both controllers the server can't detect any HDD then there is either a problem with the backplane or with one or more than 2 HDDs so before replacing anything do the following.

Try only one HDD at the time in bay 0 and see if the controller detects all HDDs you need to pop one HDD power on and check, then remove the HDD and do the same with another one. If all HDDs are detected then is for sure you have a defective backplane, there is one or more bays failed.

[Rene Doiron]

Thanks again for the info. But I've been trying a few things this morning and I kinda stumbled on something.

I went in the F9 menu at boot up (can't remember the name of that util.) and erased the "NVRAM and Boot disk". When I rebooted all the drives were accessible. I went and recreated the logical drives (RAID 0(+1)) for both arrays and went good too. I then rebooted and was told that the disks in both arrays needed a recovery (F1 to recover, F2 to continue without recovery but disabled disks)... That doesn't make much sense to me. If the logical drives were just created, why would I need to recover the disks?