Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 14:06:24 +0200 From: "Noor Dawod" <noor@comrax.com> To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Cc: <scott_long@btc.adaptec.com> Subject: Adaptec SCSI RAID 2100S problems. Message-ID: <PHEBIOJOBJJLIIJCOINKIELCCPAA.noor@comrax.com>
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Hello all, We've just bought a brand-new server for our company and chose Adaptec SCSI RAID 2100S to do RAID 5 on 4 IBM Ultrastar 18GB disks. 3 of the IBM disks have similar revisions (MLC: DS0S80) and one of the disks has a different revision (MLC: DS0S93). The other physical characteristics are the same (tracks, sectors, clusters, disk size; the size on all 4 disks). Before designing the RAID Array, the 2100S manages to identify all the disks, their sizes, their features and their speed. Even if I reboot the system few times, shut it down and then starts it up again, the RAID 2100S card still identifies the disks wonderfully (you'll know later why this was done.) Next, I go into the 2100S BIOS (called SMOR) and design the required Array (I chose RAID 5 fault-tolerance). Once I save the new settings, and the RAID Array starts building, I reboot the system. Now, the problems start... One out of 3-4 reboots, the 2100S card manages to identify all disks, reads the configured settings, and boots the system (into FreeBSD which I managed to install on a previous reboot under the configured Array). The other attempts do not succeed, and on the Disk Cage I see 3 red lights out of 4, indicating that the 2100S failed to identify disks in those bays. In addition, I hear a high-volume alarm coming out of the 2100S card indicating a problem. Next, I switched the power off, changed positions of the disks (1st disk to 4th bay, 2nd disk to 3rd bay, and so on), and turned the power on. The same error described above is repeated, but this time, 3 different red lights out of 4 are led on the cage!! I've continued to change positions of the disks in this fashion (and even after I deleted this Array and created a new RAID-1 Array), but it's always that one disk is identified (and its light is green), and 3 are not identified (and their lights are red). The strangest thing in this whole scenario is that the disk with the different revision is ALWAYS identified, while the 3 similar revision disks are not identified and FAIL wherever you place them in the bays!! Another strange thing is that when I remove the disk with the different revision, and I design a new Array using only the 3 similar disks, ALL goes well. Even after 10 (!!!) reboots, the system identifies the Array, the disks, and then boots the OS with no noticeable errors. By the way, sometimes the system boots normally while the Array is designed and created. Although most of the times, the erroneous scenario described above happens more occasionally. Does anyone know what is causing this problem, and if revision changes might cause this problem? Does the Adaptec 2100S RAID controller have a problem dealing with revision changes, or with IBM disks in particular? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you. Noor P.S.: Meanwhile, I've ordered a new disk with the same revision as the 3 to see what'd happen with 4 similar disks. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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