Repair HP SmartArray p410i

Question

i have an HP proliant server and in the last 4 years i never had a single problem with it. but yesterday i found out that i cant remotely login to my server so i went over and found that one of three of RAID HDDs has an orange LED instead of blinking green.

i reastarted the server to see what was the problem and i got 2 errors : 1787 & 1716

1716-Slot z Drive Array Controller - Unrecoverable Media Errors Detected on Drives ...Errors will be fixed automatically when these sectors are overwritten. Backup and restore recommended.

1778-Drive Array Resuming Automatic Data Recovery Process

so i guess for 1778 there is nothing to do but the first one is preventing the second one to operate.

i let the windows to boot up and it went fine but when i login desktop does not show up. i tried to launch explorer.exe from task manager but it says that i dont have the necessary permissions to do that even though i logged in with admin user! so in conclusion i did CHKDSK but again the same thing happens. what should i do ?

the HP manual suggests that i do a backup/recovery to rebuild the failed disk but i cant take a backup in windows. i cannot access safe mode or repair mode either. but i can access windows files and folders within my network.

my server uses win server 2008 r2 and it is a DC and there are several roles and sql's installed on it so i cant lose the operating system and i need a complete backup. funny thing is that my sql services and other things work perfectly but i have problem with Remote Desktop Services.

do i need a backup/restore? is there a boot program for this type of backup ? when i did the backup how am i going to restore that?

Solution

You have a 3-disk RAID 5 disk array. One of the disks had failed or is failing. Another of the three disks may be failing.

• Do you know how long this drive has been in the failed state? (orange light means drive failure)
• What size disks are these?
• What model of server is this?

My recommendation is to power the server off, remove the power cables and let the drives spin down. Leave the server off for 5-10 minutes.

Power on and watch the system POST messages carefully. When the P410 controller initializes, it will tell you what its status is (e.g. Drive in Slot #1 failed). If prompted to "disable" or "enable" logical drives, press "F2".

See if the system boots...

If the system boots fully, you may need to plan for one or two new disks, depending on the array status. Can you reply with the server model and other information I requested?

Edit:

Look very closely at the failed disk. The Spare Part number is listed on the drive's label. Your server may still be under warranty. The server warranty covers the parts inside of it. You can look up the status of the warranty on HP's web site. If your system is out of warranty, you can just order a 146GB 10K SAS hard drive using the part number listed on the disk.

Comments

[KababChi]

tnx for reply my server is a Proliant dl380 G7 - it uses 10K SAS HDD with 164GB of space - only one of them is failing i checked it in the configuration.

[KababChi]

i double checked the array and only slot 0 is failing and is in Integrim Recovery mode - btw my windows boots up right now but it is kind of damaged. i am no expert but i dont think i need to replace it

[ewwhite]

@KababChi You need to replace the failed disk.

[KababChi]

:( damn it! should i buy the exact model ? and what is needed for replacing ? what will happen to my data ? how to prevent this in the future ? tnx again

[ewwhite]

@KababChi See my edit above.

[Philip]

@ewwhite Minor critique - blinking orange is 'rebuilding', orange isn't always 'failure'.

[ewwhite]

The drive likely had a pre-failure and failure event (hence: resuming data recovery process). If it hasn't failed yet, it will fail soon. Blinking orange/amber means "Prefailure". Blinking green (on a regular interval) is the "Rebuild" indicator.