HP NetRaid Express

[Stefan123456]

Hello,

First of all, sorry for my bad English. I have a problem with a HP Netserver LH3. Last week I had some problems with the Netraid firmware, which was not responding. I solved this by checking the connections on the motherboard. That is working again. But my Windows Server 2003 won't start up anymore. When I try to boor form a floppydisk with NTFS-support, I cannot reach any SCSI-device. Sometimes I get an error during startup about a misconfiguration between the disks and the NVRAM (or something like that). When I check this in the Netraid Express tool, all drives are online. What can I do about this?

If I initialize this disk, what will happen? Will I lose all my data? Or do I have to rebuild this disk? The drive is configured as a RAID-0 drive.

Stefan

[Sean T. Craig · Accepted solution]

Stefan,

STOP!!! DON'T INITIALIZE! YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING!

The key here is the mismatch you are getting. There are 2 types:
1. Configuration Mismatch between NVRAM and Disks
2. Unresolved Configuration Mismatch

Here's the difference; The RAID configuration is stored in 2 places. On the memory of the RAID Controller (NVRAM) and to an area of the disks called the scratchpad.

In a normal mismatch, the configuration is not synchronized and can be easily resolved by selecting Configure-->View/Add/Delete Configuration and then choosing Disk configuration and checking the state of the drives. When you escape out, it will ask you if you want to save. If you say yes, it will synchronize the NVRAM to the disks. The inverse is true if you choose NVRAM from the menu.

In an Unresolved Mismatch, the scratch pad has become corrupt on one of your disks. Use Express Tools to fail one of the drives in the array and restart. If you still get the unresolved mismatch, go back in, force the drive online and fail the next one. Keep doing this until you no longer get the mismatch and are able to boot into Windows. Then, you can rebuild that drive, thereby replacing the scratch pad. The menu you want to choose for failing drives and forcing them back online is Objects-->Physical Drive.

Let us know how that goes,

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

[Shameer.V.A]

Hi Stefan,
The above answer is absolutely correct. Please follow the above method, you can make the server up.

Always try to view the physical disk configuration & overwrite it on NVRAM config.

NVRAM configurations normally gets corrupted because of accidental power failure, rebooting a hanged server etc..

In this case actual disks may not be failed & in NVRAM it may be reported as failed. So there is a mismatch in NVRAM & disk configurations. This you have to clear by doing the above method.

Best Wishes.

Regards,

Shameer

[Stefan123456]

Thanks for these replies, but I have a question, just to be sure.

If a drive's state is set to offline and then set to online (eventually forced), I will no lose any data. What about the rebuild option? Will I keep all my data?

Stefan

[Shameer.V.A]

Hi Stefan,

1Q) If a drive's state is set to offline and then set to online (eventually forced), I will no lose any data.
2Q)What about the rebuild option? Will I keep all my data?

1A)
You need to make the individual drive to offline incase of unresolved mismatch only . check the error message of mismatch is disappearing. In a synced array , removal of one disk will not cause data loss.

2A) rebuild option is to rebuild the data with parity on a failed disk, which is failed or manually made offline. It won't cause data loss.

Note: In your case no need of removing disks. You can try to save the disk configuration to NVRAM as mentioned in earlier post.


Regards,

Shameer

[Stefan123456]

The error is gone, I just had to set every single drive to online, that was all. The only problem now is that Windows Server 2003 wont boot anymore. I can get in the start-up-menu (by pressing F8 during boot), but whatever I choose, I get a blank screen. But that is not a problem for the HP-forum's.

All of you, thanks a lot for all the helping.

Stefan

[Shameer.V.A]

Hi Stefan,
In that case you have to try by failing single disk manually & try to boot. If not booting then make it online back & offline other & so on , until your O S boots.

You can also try to start the recovery console from Windows 2003 server setup CD & try to see the contents. If you are not able to get the recovery console, your array is corrupted . ( One of the disk is not in sync with others-since you manually made it online.)

You may try to offline the disk which you manually made online & try to save the config to NVRAM & boot.

Please let me know the result whatever it is..

Hope You have a good backup with you... Always plan for the Worst & Hope for the Best..


Regards,

Shameer.V.A

[Stefan123456]

Yesterday I couldn't get the server to boot from cd. (Setup hangs around 'Starting Windows Setup' or somethin like that)> Today, with the Netraid-Array working again, I can get in the recovery console. I can view the contents of both array's. So that worked out very well for me. Now I'm trying to reinstall Windows Server 2003 (the server was still in experimental phase, but it had been better if I didn't had to start all over again).

Thanks all for your help.

Stefan

[Stefan123456]

The only problem I now have is that the installation of Windows Server 2003 proceeds very slowly. After an hour or so, setup is at 43 percent of its list of files to be copied. The led on de CD-rom player flashed very slow. The first time I installed Windows Server 2003 it was slow, but not this slow (as far as I can remember).

I tried to run Memtest86+, but as soon as the gui is loaded, the system hangs. In the Event Viewer i have a lot of errors about DIMM Module 1. Could this be the problem?

Is there another way to test my memory.

I've got
1) Hp 256 Mb
2) Hp 256 Mb
3) HP 256 Mb
4) Hp 128 Mb

Stefan

[Stefan123456]

I found out that the second (bank 1) was causing these errors. Now with this dimm uninstalled, I'm checkin the ram with Memtest86+ again.

[Stefan123456]

It all worked out now, thanks for all your help. For the sluton, read through the thread.