This is a very delayed "thank you" to everyone who replied to me, including off-list, on this topic.
In the end Dell replaced the drive. The array then rebuilt itself with no issues (whew!) on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday night I was able to update the firmware and drivers with no data loss. However, for the record, it seems that it is just not possible to de-raid a RAID1 volume on a SAS 6iR, nor even to create a RAID1 volume, without total loss of data. Alexander -- the difference between the Perc and the SAS had actually gone under my own radar let alone anyone else's - thank you for pointing that out. When we next get some new systems in I will definitely experiment with software RAID, or go for a more sophisticated controller. I would also like to thank the guys at Melbourne Network Solutions in Manchester (UK), whose data centre our servers live in. No matter what price you pay or how much research you do when choosing a company for your co-lo, you never really know if you've made the right decision until something goes wrong. Melbourne has now passed this test with flying colours (twice). Sorry for going all "Oscars" here, but I'm very relieved that it is all over, and that everything worked out fine in the end. Faris. > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:linux- > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Brian O'Mahony > Sent: 06 August 2009 10:50 > To: david o'donnell; [email protected] > Subject: RE: R200 SAS 6/iR RAID-1 failing to rebuild > > If you have a spare disk I would suggest trying the rebuild on that > first. Im always wary of upgrading drivers or firmware while the RAID > volume is degraded. > > If you are going to do the FW upgrade from a boot floppy/cd you could > always pull the disks out before you do the actual upgrade (haven't > done this in years) > > What method did the tech use to describe breaking the RAID-ness? And > how would you have two identical sets of data when one set is obviously > out of synch with the constant fail/rebuild. > > Another option I would also try before a FW upgrade would be take the > disk that's not rebuilding, put in another slot, initialize it so that > it is completely wiped, then put it back in the slot and see if it > suffers the same issue. > > Like I said, I don't like doing FW upgrades when the array is messed > up. > > I am paranoid though. > _______________________________________________ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list [email protected] https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
