Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2005 13:56:49 -0700 From: "Andrew Heyn" <aheyn@lifestylecomm.com> To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Compaq Proliant 8500 issue with Integrated SMART Array RAID Controller (ida) Message-ID: <CLELJKHKLJLNMNHGHFIDMEDCCCAA.aheyn@lifestylecomm.com>
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Hi, I have a Compaq Proliant 8500 with the integrated SMART Array RAID controller. I recall seeing "Symbios" and "ARM" on a chip on the center of the PCI module must be the RAID controller. I used to have extreme problems even getting the system to boot up until I used the SmartStart CD and disabled the "Array Accelerator" for my one and only RAID1+0 Container. (Before doing this) I would get numerous ida0: soft write error and if the system did manage to boot up, a process might read the disk, and forever be stuck in some kernel routine between userland and the disk that gets a block or whatever. Now, I only get an occasional "ida0: soft read/write error" which occasionally causes a 15 or so second delay. The "Array Accelerator" for the Integrated SMART array controller is 8MB of read-only cache. Other SMART Array models like the 4200 have battery backed up cache that can be user-separated between write and read cache. I'm wondering if anybody has ever seen the problem mentioned above. I would hate to have to replace the whole PCI module because of some bad controller ram since that darn thing is integrated, and would make useless the internal bays if another raid card was added. As a note, the contacts between the hard drive and the drive module have been cleaned out multiple times for all the drives in the array. The connection between the drive module and the back of the computer is sturdy and clean. There are only TWO cables in this entire system that I know of, and one is for the IDE CDROM, and one is for the floppy. So, cabling cannot be a problem. I also have two working PSUs that each have a 120V line going into it, so I doubt it's a lack of power. Even though 220V is recommended for both of them, it works fine with even just one 120V line. I asked the HP/Compaq forum and they weren't able to give me much more of an answer than "check the cabling" and "blow off the dust" which I found extremely irritating because the data is carried on copper wires that resemble the pins found on an IDE hard drive or floppy, not your standard "cabling." I might ultimately be wrong...but I doubt it. Thanks, Andrew
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