IBM-AUSTRIA - PC-HW-Support    30 Aug 1999

Two DDD Drives, No RBL

Note: The following procedure for multiple DDD drives assumes that the operating system is installed on one of the DDD drives.

In this case, with no defined hot-spare drive, the server more than likely trapped (under OS/2 and NT) or the volume was dismounted (under NetWare).
To resolve this scenario, examine the ServeRAID log generated by the ServeRAID Administration Utility and follow the steps below:

1.  Boot to the ServeRAID DOS Configuration Diskette for the ServeRAID adapter.
2.  Choose Set Device State and highlight the drive marked DDD last by the ServeRAID adapter.
    Set this drive's state to ONL. The drive spins up and changes from DDD to ONL status.

   Warning: If you use the wrong order when you set the drive's state to ONL, data  corruption results. See the following note to determine the last drive marked DDD by the ServeRAID adapter.

   Note: Refer to Using and Understanding the ServeRAID Administration Log  for details on obtaining and interpreting the ServeRAID log.

   •  If only one drive is recorded in the ServeRAID log because the ServeRAID adapter was not able to log the defunct  drive before the operating system went down, the last drive that went defunct is  the drive that is not recorded in the ServeRAID log.
   •  If two drives are recorded in the ServeRAID log, then the last drive to go defunct is the second drive listed in  the log - that is, the drive with the most recent time stamp.

3.  If the drive has been marked DDD before, physically replace the hard drive with a new one of the same capacity or  greater. Proceed to step 5.
4.  Proceed to step 5 to software-replace the  remaining DDD drive using the ServeRAID Administration and Monitoring Utility or  Netfinity ServeRAID Manager.

   Note: Refer to Software and Physical Replacement  to understand the differences between software and physical replacement.

5.  With a RAID-1 or RAID-5 logical drive, the  operating system will be functional. Use either Netfinity Manager or the  ServeRAID Administration and Monitoring Utility within the operating system to  start the Rebuild process. With the ServeRAID Administration and Monitoring  Utility, select the drive marked DDD and choose Rebuild from the menu that appears.

6.  The adapter issues a start unit command to the drive.
    The drive then begins the Rebuild process. Once the drive completes this process, the drive's status changes to ONL.
7.  If you see the message:

     Error in starting drive
   
   

    Re-insert the cables, hard drive, and all other components to verify that there is a good connection.
    Go to step 5. If the error persists, go to step 8

8.  Physically replace the hard drive in the DDD SID with a new one of the same capacity or greater and go to step 5
9.  If the error still occurs with a known good hard  drive, troubleshoot to determine if the cable, back plane, ServeRAID adapter, or other component is defective.

   Note: You can view the ServeRAID Device Event Table by selecting the logical  drive from the ServeRAID Administration and Monitoring Utility. If Hard Events  are reported in the ServeRAID Device Event Table, refer to Device Event Table  for more information.
    The ServeRAID adapter, in many cases, should not be replaced.

10.  Once you have replaced the defective part so  that there is a good connection between the adapter and the hard drive, go to step 5.
11.  If software replacement brings all the drives  back ONL and makes the system operational, carefully inspect all cables, etc.,  to ensure that the cables or backplane are not defective.
     Make sure that the card is seated properly. When multiple drives are marked defunct, it is often  the communication channel (cable or backplane) that is the cause of the failure.
     If the backplane is bowed, drives and backplane connectors may not seat  properly, causing it to have a bad connection. Also, with hot-swap drives that  are removed frequently, connectors could become damaged if too much force is exerted.

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