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Sorry for not providing more information when I previously posted this question. More detail is provided below. Any feedback would be welcome.

I have a HP DL380 G4 2U server which has 6 drive scsi slots and all of them are populated.

4 of the drives are in a RAID 5 configuration and one of them has failed leaving the server in an interim recovery configuration. The two remaining drives show up as unassigned in the Array Configuration Utility.

The failed drive has been marked as failed and replaced with one of the unassigned drives in the same slot but the replaced drive is not being rebuilt.

My queries are how to get the replaced drive rebuilt or how to add an unassigned drive as a spare at this point as I don't see an option for Spare Management.

Results below:

Array: A
 Interface Type: Parallel SCSI
 Unused Space: 0MB
 Status: Failed Physical Drive

One of the drives on this array have failed or has been removed.

Logical Drive: 1
 Size: 50.0GB
 Fault Tolerance: RAID 5
 Heads: 255
 Sectors Per Track: 32
 Cylinders: 12850
 Strip Size: 64KB
 Full Stripe Size: 192KB
 Status: Interim Recovery Mode
 Array Accelerator: Enabled
 Parity Initialization Status: Initialization Completed
 Unique Identifier: 600508B1001(etc)
 Disk Name: \\.\PhysicalDrive0
 Mount Points: Unknown 100MB, C:\49.9GB
 Logical Drive Label: A9F63F6EP57820W9SSX08KD954

Logical Drive: 2  
       Size: 360.2 GB
       Fault Tolerance: RAID 5
       Heads: 255
       Sectors Per Track: 32
       Cylinders: 65535
       Strip Size: 64 KB
       Full Stripe Size: 192 KB
       Status: Interim Recovery Mode
       Array Accelerator: Enabled
       Parity Initialization Status: Initialization Completed
       Unique Identifier: 600508B10010573953535830384B0004
       Disk Name: \\.\PhysicalDrive1
       Mount Points: D:\ 360.2 GB
       Logical Drive Label: A0B63FCDP57820W9SSX08KF038

physicaldrive 1:5

    SCSI Bus: 1
    SCSI ID: 5
    Status: Failed
    Drive Type: Data Drive
    Interface Type: Parallel SCSI
    Size: ??? GB

physicaldrive 2:2
    SCSI Bus: 2
    SCSI ID: 2
    Status: OK
    Drive Type: Data Drive
    Interface Type: Parallel SCSI
    Transfer Mode: Ultra 320 Wide
    Size: 146.8 GB
    Transfer Speed: 320 MB/Sec
    Rotational Speed: 10000
    Firmware Revision: HPB0
    Serial Number: AAA1P5103P740505
    Model: COMPAQ  BD1468856B
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5
  • Hi. The operating System is Windows 2008 R2 and is still functional (its serving its purpose). There is a HP Utility Array Configuration Utility which was installed to see the RAID configuration from the OS. The 2 unused drives should have been setup as spares in hindsight. They are now just showing up as 2 unassigned drives. I did remove the drive marked as failed and replaced it with one of the unassigned drives but this didnt appear to make any difference at all based according to the HP UAC application. Is there something else that needs to be done for the changes to be recognised?
    – user151520
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 19:55
  • To ewwhite. Please find the answers to your queries above. I'm not sure what happened to you original response.
    – user151520
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 20:11
  • The controller doesn't care where the drives are in the bays, that drive was marked unused so it will continue to be unused no matter where you put it. For sanity sake I do recommend moving the drive to a physical arrangement that "matches" the logical grouping. But all you need to do is mark one of the unused drives as a spare to the array, the controller will seize the new spare for the array and start rebuilding (unless you have auto-rebuild turned off, a non-default option on some SA controllers).
    – Chris S
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 21:55
  • This is likely a smart array 6i or 641 or 6400-series controller with parallel SCSI disks. The only reason this type of array wouldn't rebuild automatically is an URE condition on the other disks.
    – ewwhite
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 22:30
  • The smart array 6i in embedded slot is the one used for the array configuration.
    – user151520
    Commented Jan 7, 2013 at 23:54

3 Answers 3

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Since you have the HP Array Configuration Utility installed on Windows 2008, please provide the output of the following command in the HP Array Configuration Command Line program (It's in your Programs Menu).

HPACUCLI> ctrl all show config detail

Based on that, we'll be able to determine if the array is in the dreaded "Waiting for Rebuild" state. If it is, then it means that you won't be able to rebuild the array due to read errors on the remaining RAID 5 disks.

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10
  • Thanks I will give this a go and post my results once I get them tomorrow.
    – user151520
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 19:53
  • ewwhite got the right idea. Another thing to ask: Which exact model raid controller and what version on the drivers, the raid firmware and the ACU utilities ? When you are running W2K8 the raid firmware should have been updated to at least a 2009 version or you are in real trouble.
    – Tonny
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 22:26
  • It's a DL380 G4, so the likely controller is the onboard Smart Array 6i or a PCI-X based 641/6400. Their last firmware updates occurred in 2008.
    – ewwhite
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 22:34
  • @user151520 I imported your data into the question.
    – sysadmin1138 ♦
    Commented Jan 8, 2013 at 1:50
  • Is there any other information I can get to help you provide any potential solutions to this particular issue?
    – user151520
    Commented Jan 11, 2013 at 13:24
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if the drive you replaced is put back into an existing array then the ProLiant array utility should immediately start rebuilding it. I believe that the hot spare is configured when the first building the array. does the disk management in the Proliant utilities see the new drive?

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  • This was my understanding too (regarding the rebuilding of the drive). I admit I should have ideally set the hot spares when the array was created - am now learning the hard way. The HP utility doesnt give the option for configuring a spare drive now - as was shown in the HP documentation about this. I was wondering if it is only an option at that point in time on array creation. When the drives were swapped, the server showed question marks for the drive that was replaced. Otherwise it showed the same info as previous (still 2 unassigned drives)
    – user151520
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 20:05
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The unassigned drive has controller configurations written on it, even if you change the slot it will still be an unassigned HDD. In order to use it you have to set it as a global hot spare (or dedicated HS for the VD). I don't remember exactly how can this be done from the configuration utilities, but I'm quite sure that you can find out from the Controller BIOS upon rebooting a machine, or reading the HPACUCLI documentation.

Edit: Check this link: It explains exactly what you need.

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1
  • Bad advice, at least until we get the status of the drive array. There's a high-likelihood that this is the result of read errors on the remaining drives in the RAID 5 array.
    – ewwhite
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 21:46

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