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PowerEdge 6450 - SCSI Raid Problem - Help!
I have a DELL PE6450 with dual 550 CPU, 1GB of RAM.
It has an AMI PERC 2/DC SCSI RAID controller with 128MB ram.
There are 2 Seagate HDDs inside the server, configured in RAID1 and they work great. I am running Windows Server 2003 Small Business.
I added an external HDD Array that has 7 SCSI HDDs in a box. (no brand label on the box - 5 HDDs are Seagate 18GB and 2 HDDs are IBM 36GB)
I attached the HDD Array to the Dell Expandable Raid Controller (AMI) and after i did Ctrl-M and got inside the config options, i saw all 7 HDDs displayed as "Ready". I configured one pair as Raid 1 and the other 5 identical HDDs became RAID5. I saved all the configurations and i rebooted the box.
I booted to my WIndows 2003 desktop and i was able to see the new volumes and to format them.
UNfortunately, in a few minutes of system being idle, i heard a beeping noise from the server and i lost the two newly added HDD volumes. Beeping continued. I rebooted the the server and after a "Ctrl-M" i saw in the config that all the drives in the Array were in "Fail" mode". Also, One of the 36GB IBM drives was not in the list anymore.
I cleared the configuration to stop the beeping and i recreated everything again, except the pair of IBM drives. Now i have only one IBM disk displayed, so i left it as a "hot spare".
Booted to Windows successfully, i created the new volume and after a few minutes...the SAME problem appeared. I lost the array, again!
I tried the above procedure 4 times and everytime the array was failing. Why is this happening???
I was able to upgrade the BIOS using the A14 firmware version.
I was able to update the ESM from my Windows 2003 desktop but during POST it still tells me that i need to upgrade the ESM components. why?!?!?
I also flashed the AMI SCSI RAID card usig the Windows application. It was successful, but when i do Ctrl-M, i still see the old version of the firmware. (2.50) Why??
Does anyone have any suggestions why i cannot use my external Array of SCSI HDDs? What should i do in order to prevent the drives in the array from failing every time??
Why i cannot see the newly upgraded/flashed ESM and AMI card firmware, even though Windows 2003 application tells me that the Firmware on these components was upgraded successfully?
Note:...the issues with the SCSI Array were existing before i even attempted to upgrade the BIOS and the other devices.
Thanks in advance for any help!
- Thank you for your reply. I decded to go to the RAID config utility (Ctrl-M) and to format the HDDs one by one, just like you told me.Well, i started from the IBM HDD, 36GB, (the other IBM drive is no longer on the list of drives) and i started a format. It has been 11 minutes and it sitll has not finished formatting. I am waiting for it as i type this. This cannot be normal. All it says is "Format Physical Drives in Progress" and the HDD is blinking.Should i label this HDD defective?Thanks again!
- Hi,as I have written before, a format will take about 1 minute per GB. Consequently a format of your 36 GB IBM drive should take about 36 minutes. Please consider, that the time a format takes is not a suitable failure indicator unless the system freezes while formatting or is obvious slower than a known good structurally identical drive.Performance problems while accessing SCSI device more frequent indicates a termination errors.
Message Edited by Per_R. on 11-19-2005 02:54 PM
Per_R.
157 Posts
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Posted November 4th, 2004 08:00
In this situation it's difficult to identify the reason.
If possible, you should cross test the external unit on another server with another controller inside.
To rule out any hard drive problems I recommend to use the format command of the PERC2/DC BIOS to low-level format all disks. This is a very easy way to test your disks and it's almost always reliable. A format will take 1 minute per GB (on the average).
Also check your external array for proper termination and check your SCSI cable for bent, broken or missing pins.
Message Edited by Per_R. on 11-19-2005 02:55 PM