Server restarted while rebuilding array, what to do?

Question

It's a HP ProLiant DL380 Generation 7, that has four hard drives, one is dead, I suppose that another one is dead too, but is there any way to force the array to rebuild again?

The server has restarted while it was rebuilding an array.

My windows server(2008) that is on it won't boot, it goes directly to system recovery screen.

I have an image backup, would restoring it be my only option?

If I restore, it will get back to regular automatically or will I have to configure something?

Solution

What happened prior to this? Did you replace a disk?

A reboot during a RAID controller rebuild is not harmful. The controller would just resume. If you had a deeper array problem or removed the wrong disk(s), then there could be an issue.

How/why did the server reboot?

HP ProLiant servers are reasonably intelligent. The server will tell you exactly what is wrong here.

• A visual inspection of the server will reveal the status of the disks. Look at the LEDs on the drives marked by #8 and #9. Failed disks will show an amber/orange/red light on the drive.

• If you don't have physical access to the server, but have access to the console, watch the system POST messages. Again, the Smart Array P410 RAID controller will tell you exactly what it thinks is wrong.

• You can press F8 during the controller initialization to view the RAID status.

• RAID rebuilds are automatic. There's no way to force this action to happen.

Comments

[ewwhite]

Were you using RAID 5?

[user239054]

@ewwhite, I can't tell you if it uses RAID 5, but, would be possible to you to tell me what should I do on both cases?

[user239054]

@ewwhite, there's a 'HP Smart Array p4101 controller' on the screen, does that help you to figure it out?

[ewwhite]

What happened before this? Did you replace a disk?

[user239054]

No, I simply restarted Windows Server, and it wouldn't reboot.

[user239054]

But what should I do? Would restoring the backup image be the solution? Will I have to configure anything at all after restoring?

[ewwhite]

If you don't know the status of your array and disk health, then it will be really difficult to give you any advice here. You need to know the RAID level, which disks are good/bad and the status of the array rebuild.

[user239054]

I have restarted Windows Server 2008, then it didn't booted anymore, then a checkdisk on boot started automatically, after that it rebooted and was always getting me to windows system recovery screen.

[user239054]

All disks was flashing green, but before, one was amber static(offline). When the array was being rebuilded, 3 from 4 disks were flashing green and amber.

[ewwhite]

What RAID level is this?

[user239054]

I'm sorry, I don't know that information, it's my first time dealing with servers, it's located in the company I recently joined, I'm a trainee but there's no one who can help me with that there, thank you very much anyways, if you have any tips on what should I do to fix it, please do share, thank you very much again.

[ewwhite]

I'd recommend contacting the person who is actually responsible for the server to assist you at this point. You haven't given enough information to help diagnose the problem.