"Parity Initialization Status: In Progress" for long time

[JavierSanchez]

Hello,

Two weeks ago I installed 6 new hard disks (HP 500GB 6G 7.2K SFF 2.5-inch 2-ports SAS DualPort Midline, 507610-B21)
in a "HP DL 380 G5" with a "Smart Array P400" (RAM Firmware Revision 2.08, ROM Firmware Revision 2.08).

I created a new logical disk with 5 physical disk in RAID 5 and a spare drive (array B):

[...]
=> ctrl all show config

Smart Array P400 in Slot 1                (sn: P61620D9SUKHBP)

   array A (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)


      logicaldrive 1 (136.7 GB, RAID 1, OK)

      physicaldrive 2I:1:1 (port 2I:box 1:bay 1, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:2 (port 2I:box 1:bay 2, SAS, 146 GB, OK)

   array B (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)


      logicaldrive 2 (1.8 TB, RAID 5, OK)

      physicaldrive 1I:1:5 (port 1I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:6 (port 1I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:7 (port 1I:box 1:bay 7, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:3 (port 2I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:4 (port 2I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:8 (port 1I:box 1:bay 8, SAS, 500 GB, OK, spare)

[...]


    After that I could create the filesystem on It, mount It and use It without any issue.

    My problem is that One week later the controller still was initializing parity.

[...]
   Array: B
      Interface Type: SAS
      Unused Space: 0 MB
      Status: OK



      Logical Drive: 2
         Size: 1.8 TB
         Fault Tolerance: RAID 5
         Heads: 255
         Sectors Per Track: 32
         Cylinders: 65535
         Stripe Size: 64 KB
         Status: OK
         Array Accelerator: Enabled
         Parity Initialization Status: In Progress
         Unique Identifier: 600508B10010443953554B484250000C
         Disk Name: /dev/cciss/c0d1
         Mount Points: /buzonesdir 1.8 TB
         OS Status: LOCKED
         Logical Drive Label: A0C36F2EP61620D9SUKHBPA42A

[...]

    At that moment, trying to speed up the parity initialization, I increased the rebuild and expand priority from "medium" to "high".

    But, one week later (working with high priority) the "Parity Initialization Status" is still "In Progress".

    Do you know if this is normal and I should let It continue working?
    Do you know any way to check if really "Parity initialization" is being done and how long It will last?

    Thank you very much.

    

[PGTRI]

hi,

Please update the FW of the controller - the latest version is 7.22  and please try putting a file on the logical drive and check what happens.

Thanks!

regards,

[noldi]

I've a similar chase where we have a 6 member RAID 6 logical drive that we have created on Monday is still in

"Parity Initialization Status: In Progress" mode on Friday:

   array B (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)

      logicaldrive 2 (273.3 GB, RAID 6 (ADG), OK)

      physicaldrive 1I:1:5 (port 1I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 72 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:6 (port 1I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 72 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:7 (port 1I:box 1:bay 7, SAS, 72 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:8 (port 1I:box 1:bay 8, SAS, 72 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:3 (port 2I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 72 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:4 (port 2I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 72 GB, OK)

The controller and disk are on latest FW and the Rebuild Priority is set to High:

Smart Array P400 in Slot 1
   Bus Interface: PCI
   Slot: 1
   Serial Number: PAFGK0K9VW22GP
   Cache Serial Number: PA2270J9SW55EZ
   RAID 6 (ADG) Status: Enabled
   Controller Status: OK
   Chassis Slot:
   Hardware Revision: Rev E
   Firmware Version: 7.24
   Rebuild Priority: High
   Expand Priority: Medium
   Surface Scan Delay: 15 sec
   Cache Board Present: True
   Cache Status: OK
   Accelerator Ratio: 50% Read / 50% Write
   Drive Write Cache: Enabled
   Total Cache Size: 512 MB
   Battery Pack Count: 1
   Battery Status: OK
   SATA NCQ Supported: True

The ADU Report is attached.

Since we could not wait on Monday for the parity initialization to complete so we restored and are running an Oracle Database on it (without any issues so far).

How long does it usually take to build up such a RAID Volume?

Thanks much for all hints & best Regards,

Arnold

[noldi]

I checked the status today and found out that it eventually completed:

# hpacucli controller slot=1 ld 2 show detail

Smart Array P400 in Slot 1

   array B

      Logical Drive: 2
         Size: 273.3 GB
         Fault Tolerance: RAID 6 (ADG)
         Heads: 255
         Sectors Per Track: 32
         Cylinders: 65535
         Stripe Size: 16 KB
         Status: OK
         Array Accelerator: Enabled
         Parity Initialization Status: Initialization Completed
         Unique Identifier: 600508B100104B395657323247500004
         Disk Name: /dev/cciss/c0d1
         Mount Points: None
         Logical Drive Label: A01E2AD0PAFGK0K9VW22GPDF51

So, depending on the environment, expect this to take some weeks!

Best Regards,

Arnold

[JavierSanchez]

Mine also finally finished successfully.

After several weeks the task was finally completed. It took an incredible amount of time but finally finished well.

[Sonny78]

Hi Guys thank you for this page.
But isn't it crazy that it took you several weeks 

I tried a lot of stuff 

hpssacli controller slot=0 modify rebuildpriority=high

hpssacli controller slot=0 modify ssd=0

But this LD is still uner 

Parity Initialization Status: In Progress after days.

Fyi it is only a Raid5 with 4x300GB (yes yes I know Raid5 is bad and I should feel bad)

Thanks a lot,

Sonny 

edit 1 : BTW If you know how to check the progress of "Parity Initialization Status" (in % or else) Do not hesitate to tell me 

[MatthewO]

I found out this progress can be viewed in the HPE Smart Storage Administrator (for Windows at least), and the process priority is defined by the Surface Scan Priority setting of the Array Controller.  By default it is set to 'idle' which means it only performs parity initialization when the controller/disks are idle (on a server this is likely to be not very often).  Set it to high to work faster.

I know because after 3x days mine was still at 0.00%, and then when I changed this setting it immediately started going up, and after about 8hrs it was complete.