1724-Drive Array - Physical Drive Position Change(s) Detected

[Rejeesh Radhakrishnan]

Hi
We have an HP Proliant DL580-G5 server with 12TB smart array attached. As a part of maintenance we moved the system and the attached disk arrays to a different rack and after reconnecting it seems 3TB of the smart array is disappeared from our logical partitions. I really don't want to do any experiment on these drives, since the data in the missing drives are so important.

If any body can help to guide me in this would be highly appreciated

I have attached the logs from HP log viewer.

[Michael A. McKenney]

Do you know what is missing? How did it fail? Drives come loose and dropped the array? What is the error?

You might need Ontrack to recover the data. It can cost $$$$$$.

12TB, 48 drives? How were they configured? How many enclosures? Did you reconnect all the enclosures properly? Did you do full backups before moving them?

[Rejeesh Radhakrishnan]

Thanks for your quick response,

The entire array consists of 12 drives (1 TB each). We had 7 partition on this array(5*2TB, 2*1TB).

We didnt even disconnect any of the drive from the array, was just moving the system and the entire array to a diffent place. But after reconnecting 2 of our partitions (1*2TB,1*1TB) are disappeared from the list.

I am pretty sure that we reconected every think correct as before and nothing happened to the array while moving it. I can see 2 connection ports on the Disk array and I am also thinking about to connect through the other port which we are not using now, is that make any sense??

We are getting millions of files in the drives on daily basis, so it was practically impossible to take regular backups.

I have already attached the error details in my prev post which I got from HP log viewer. If it helps, please check the attached Array Diagnostic Report which is generated from HP-ADU(it shows some errors in slot3).

Thanks
Rejeesh R

[Michael A. McKenney]

A tape library or another SAN for a backup. Ontrack could cost $10,000+ to recover your data.

Do you see all the drives in the enclosure? Are all of them healthy? Tell us more about the 12 x 1 TB drives? Any drives fail? Do they all spin up properly? Turn off every server connected to those drives. Turn off the power to those drives. Reseat every drive and make sure they are properly mounted. Watch the drives spin up.

As a last resort before data recovery, you could upgrade the firmware on the controller and drives but report what you see in the controller.

[Terry Hutchings]

Which controller was your storage attached to? I do not see any errors listed in the ADU, BUT there are also no drives attached to the SA6400 controller. The fact there are no drives attached to it and there are also no errors would likely mean that whatever used to be attached to that controller is not being detected.

The controller configuration is stored on the drives, not on the controller, so if the drives with the configuration were removed, then it would not know about the missing drives.

[Terry Hutchings]

OK, forgot to check the IML you had attached to the original post. The IML lists multiple errors regarding drives attached to the controller in slot #3. The P800 you have installed sees all of the drives in the MSA60 (12 x 1 TB drives), but whatever was attached to the SA6400 is no longer seen. This was likely another external enclosure, as this controller won't support the types of drives that can be installed in the server.

[Michael A. McKenney]

I would call HP and pay them to come out and fix it. No backup. Do you want to take a chance?

[Terry Hutchings · Accepted solution]

I would first look for the enclosure or cable that is not connected.

[Michael A. McKenney]

It sounds like one enclosure and 12 x 1TB drives. So two cables at most. Sounds like more than a loose cable. I would open the enclosure and check every connection for power and data. Maybe one came loose.

If it was a power issues, drives would show failed. if they dropped off.

If a loose cable, drives would fail on startup.

I would still call HP support to come out and check it out. Could be many issues from power, cabling, termination, firmware.

On POST, does it show any failures when the controller finds the arrays? Any drives with failed lights?

[Rejeesh Radhakrishnan]

It doesnt show any error, and all the drive LEDs are lighting properly.

I think you said right, I will go for HP service to check this issue.

Thanks to all for your valuable response.