Using and Understanding the ServeRAID Administration Log

^{IBM-AUSTRIA - PC-HW-Support 30 Aug 1999}

Using and Understanding the ServeRAID Administration Log

Using and Understanding the ServeRAID Administration Log

The ability to read the ServeRAID log, generated by the IPSMON or Netfinity ServeRAID Manager, is a most important part of recovering an array when one or more drives are marked DDD.
From the ServeRAID log, you can determine in what order drives went DDD, and, if multiple drives are DDD, which one is the 'inconsistent' or 'out-of-synch' drive.
The ServeRAID log is created by running either IPSMON.EXE or Netfinity Manager.
IPSMON.EXE is available on the IBM ServeRAID Command Line Programs Diskette from the IBM web site:

http://www.us.pc.ibm.com/files.html

Search on 'ServeRAID.'

Netfinity Manager is part of ServerGuide, which is shipped with every IBM PC Server and Netfinity Server.

The following is an excerpt from a ServeRAID log created by the IPSMON utility:

RAID log 09/12/97 09:33:36 INF003:A1C-B - synchronization started 09/12/97 09:40:22 INF004:A1C-B - synchronization completed 09/12/97 09:41:43 CRT001:A1C3B03 - dead drive detected 09/12/97 09:42:13 INF001:A1C-B - rebuild started 09/12/97 09:52:11 INF002:A1C-B - rebuild completed 09/12/97 09:55:24 CRT001:A1C3B04 - dead drive detected

The original configuration was:

SID 1: HSP
SID 2: ONL
SID 3: ONL
SID 4: ONL

The format is as follows:

date time error type:Ax Cx Bxx message

The x following A is the adapter number, the x following C is the channel, and the xx following B is the SID number.
An error type can be either informational or critical .
The message gives a brief description of the RAID event that has occurred.

The first two lines of the ServeRAID log show that a synchronization was started and proceeded to complete successfully.
At a later point in time, on line 3 of the ServeRAID log, a dead drive is detected on adapter 1, channel 3, SID 3.
In this case, since an HSP drive is defined, the rebuild starts automatically.
Both the start and finish of the rebuild is logged by the IPSMON monitoring utility.
Later on, the drive in SID 4 is marked dead, but no rebuild is started because the HSP drive has already been used.

In the current ServeRAID log, the drive in SID 4 is the 'inconsistent' drive, and must be physically replaced.
If more drives are DDD but are not listed in the ServeRAID log because the server has trapped (OS/2 or NT) or the volume was dismounted (NetWare), you must software-replace those drives before replacing the drive in SID 2, because the other drives contain the correct information to rebuild the 'inconsistent' drive.

If this is the case, you should mark other drives ONL and then rebuild drive SID 4.

Before you perform any actions on the hardware, make a hardcopy of the Channel Record Table Use Netfinity Manager, the ServeRAID administration program, or the ServeRAID configuration program to fill in the copy of the Channel Record Table at with the current status of all the drives, both internal and external.
This table provides a three-channel diagram to accommodate all types of ServeRAID adapters.

For the ServeRAID adapters, if power is lost or another drive is marked DDD during a rebuild operation, the rebuild fails and the drive being rebuilt remains in the RBL state.
Consequently, the 'inconsistent' drive remains recognizable.

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