On Sun, 30 May 2010, Craig McLean wrote:
Date: Sun, 30 May 2010 19:21:34 -0600
From: Craig McLean <[email protected]>
Reply-To: CLUG General <[email protected]>
To: 'CLUG General' <[email protected]>
Subject: [clug-talk] Poweredge Disk Problem
Hello.
I'm trying to setup OpenNAS on a Dell Poweredge 1800 server with 3 300GB
SCSI Hot Swappable disks. I'm experiencing some unusual behaviour. When I
turn the server on the disks periodically decide not to spin up. On this
server it is normal for the disks to start up a few moments after power is
applied, however for some reason that doesn't happen. When this happens the
POST process gets stuck at initializing the Dell PERC 4 RAID card.
Obviously this isn't an OpenNAS problem, however I am hoping somebody
who knows more about Dell server hardware will have some hints on what
is going on here.
My first two instincts would be to check the RAID card and the power
supply. Most decent RAID cards have the ability to stagger the start up
of the drives so that they all do not spin up at the same time placing
undue stress on the PS. Check in the BIOS of the RAID card for such a
setting, if it is not set, try staggering the start-up of the various
drives.
Can you test this system with a different (it could be same make/model or
different) RAID card just to see if the disks power up reliably? You may
also wish to try moving the RAID card to another PCI/PCI-X/PCIe slot if
possible.
Having said that, 3 drives is not something that usually stresses a power
supply unless the power supply itself is failing. Try replacing the power
supply if possible.
Your priorities will dictate the order in which you proceed. If data
integrity is most important, then start with the power supply. If time
and convenience are more important than I would look at the RAID card
first.
Hth,
__
Gustin
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