From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Nov 15 01:26:21 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8DF9016A421 for ; Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:26:21 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdow@earthlink.net) Received: from elasmtp-curtail.atl.sa.earthlink.net (elasmtp-curtail.atl.sa.earthlink.net [209.86.89.64]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 48A0D13C4C6 for ; Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:26:21 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdow@earthlink.net) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=dk20050327; d=earthlink.net; b=WCxW4SQkseNNGYMQl6fNgJME4+zVL5R2yF3vPQohS9+crdC+hh7JcZX2mKAW9bPg; h=Received:Message-ID:From:To:References:Subject:Date:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:X-Priority:X-MSMail-Priority:X-Mailer:X-MimeOLE:X-ELNK-Trace:X-Originating-IP; Received: from [216.189.216.204] (helo=Thing) by elasmtp-curtail.atl.sa.earthlink.net with asmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1IsTL3-0004tQ-85 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:16:13 -0500 Message-ID: <018c01c82725$1dfcd040$29a5a8c0@Thing> From: "jdow" To: References: <4736593E.1090905@networktest.com><64c038660711102109x2ea186afjdd219292d8eed700@mail.gmail.com><47372644.4060201@networktest.com><20071112161416.GB98697@gizmo.acns.msu.edu><47388CCE.6080201@networktest.com> <20071112175351.GA99195@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:16:12 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198 X-ELNK-Trace: bb89ecdb26a8f9f24d2b10475b571120f41d42199d67ba1e42681cea56904af972fee374a2a11089350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c X-Originating-IP: 216.189.216.204 Subject: Re: dealing with a failing drive X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:26:21 -0000 From: "Jerry McAllister" Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 12:53 > On Mon, Nov 12, 2007 at 09:26:38AM -0800, David Newman wrote: > >> On 11/12/07 8:14 AM, Jerry McAllister wrote: >> >> > An update: After doing what you suggest (leaving in the "good" disk, >> > adding a new disk, RAID rebuilding) I still got soft write errors -- >> > with *either one* of the disks I tried. >> > >> > Then I tried putting both disks in an identical server and they came up >> > fine, no read or write errors. >> > >> > Ergo, the bad RAID controller is bad and the disks may be OK. >> > >> >> Probably not. >> >> Generally, if the RAID controller is bad, you will see errors >> >> all over and not it just one place, tho I suppose it is possible. >> >> Check and see what it reports as error locations and see if they >> >> move around any. >> >> Jerry, thanks for your response. >> >> After 36 hours of running the same disks in a different, identical >> machine there hasn't been a single read or write error. I'm hardly a >> storage expert but from the evidence I have I'm inclined to believe the >> root cause was a bad RAID controller and not failed disks. > > That is not much proof. > The different machine would probably be accessing the disks in > a different way, either slightly different positioning or using > different space. Also, 36 hours is not really much time. Dn, I have had a Promise controller that was bad. I kept getting errors at one specific location on two disks out of three on a RAID 5. The system continued to operate. When I finally spent the time to nail it down to the controller I found the Promise people more than anxious to get the beast for a postmortem. It had been bad for me from day one. It would take about a week to a month for the problem to appear. After the 6th disk showing the problem at the same block number the coin dropped in my sometimes overly slow mind. {^_-} Joanne