Help Analyzing Disk Errors.

[Steve Calnek]

I'm hoping to get some advice in regards to analyzing disk errors.

System Info,
DS20, 2 Processers running OpenVMS 8.3 with all of the latest updates.

The system uses a Smart Array 5300 controller.
1 (Internal) Channel is used for the RAID 1 System Disk
2 (External) Channels are used to connect to a drive shelf that supports 2x 3 disk RAID 5 Arrays.

The problem,

Out of the blue, one of the external arrays started to rack up errors.

Device Device Error Volume Free Trans Mnt
Name Status Count Label Space Count Cnt
ALPHA2$DKE0: Mounted 0 DISK$A 8.36GB 1536 1
ALPHA2$DKE1: Mounted 0 DISK$B 87.84GB 415 1
ALPHA2$DKE2: Mounted 113 DISK$C 61.93GB 200 1

Using MSA$UTIL I've reviewed the controller and drives status. There's really no indication of a problem.

I'm asking for suggestions on other utilities or logs that might help identify the issue.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer.

Steve Calnek/

[Volker Halle · Accepted solution]

Steve,

first try DECevent ($ DIAGNOSE command).

Another errlog analysis tool to try would be SEA (System Event Analyzer) of the WEBES tool suite. That tool should also support Smart Array controllers.

You can find those tools at:

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/svctools/

Volker.

[Volker Halle]

Steve,

also consider to have a look at SMH (System Management Homepage) and ACUXE (HP Array Configuration Utility for OpenVMS)

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/acuxe/release_notes.html

This provides a graphical interface to the Smart Array controller and will show more details than MSA$UTIL.

Volker.

[Jim_McKinney]

> first try DECevent ($ DIAGNOSE command)

If you can DIAGNOSE the error log entries, you'll likely find that all have either common "associated port and target" or common "device locator" values that will call out the location of the problematic drive in your array.

[Steve Calnek]

Thanks Volker,

I use DecEvent all the time for other issues, it was late and I was not thinking. One of the drives failed. I've scrambled HP for a replacement.

Thanks as always for the help.

Regards

Steve Calnek/