What does Quick Initialized RAID status mean?

Question

We have re-created RAID1 on our IBM X3400, with the 8K-l RAID card, and now the RAID1 is in status of Quick Initialized.

I've read online that the performance of this status is might not be optimal, and some actions required to bring the operation paramters to optimal.

Is this correct, and would the synchronize action (as I don't see anything else available) help?

Thanks!

Solution 1

The quick initialization process initializes the first 1024 sectors of the logical drive. After initializing the array should go to the status Optimal. There is no need to synchronize after you create the array.

Solution 2

When the "Quick Init" option is used to create an array, the "Build" process is bypassed. While this is the fastest method for creating a RAID array, it is only recommended for use with new drives. Data can be written to the drive, but performance will be impacted while the array is in Quick Init mode.

In order to get the array into an Optimal state, a Verify with Fix must be initiated from Storage Manager. This process will ensure that any inconsistencies are repaired and for a RAID 5, parity will be recalculated.

This is done through the Storage Manager Browser Edition software, which is no longer suggested to be used, or with the currently supported version of Adaptec Storage Manager.

To initiate Verify in SMBE (Storage Manager Browser Edition), do the following:

•Launch SMBE •Select the array •Then click the Tasks button •Go to the New Task tab and create a Verify task for the array Once that Verify runs and completes, the array Status will change to “Optimal".

If using the Adaptec Storage Manager 2.12 or higher, proceed as follows:

•Launch Adaptec Storage Manager •Locate the Logical drive: Although the Status will show a Status of Optimal, it is still in Quick Init mode. •Right click on the Logical drive and choose "Verify with fix". •The process can either be scheduled to run at a later date and time or started immediately - click either "Yes" or "Schedule". •After a short delay, the status will change to "Building/Verifying: 0%", then 1%, 2%, etc. •When the process completes, the status will change to Optimal.

If using the Arcconf command console the following command can be issued to verify the array and bring it to an optimal status: ARCCONF TASK TASK START LOGICALDRIVE [noprompt] TASK STOP LOGICALDRIVE

Parameters: Controller# is the controller number LogicalDrive# is the number of the logical drive in which the task is to be performed

Logical drive options: - verify_fix (Verify with fix) — verifies the logical drive redundancy and repairs the drive if bad data is found. - verify — verifies the logical drive redundancy without repairing bad data. - clear — removes all data from the drive.

For further details please see the Adaptec Storage Manager or Command Line Utility (CLI) User's Guide.

Solution 3

DISCLAIMER: I can't say the following is 100 % true in your case since different controllers and algorithms are just too different.

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Probably this status is similar to what you get as result of using "assume-clean" option when creating RAID with Linux Soft RAID's mdadm.

When you make a write to RAID, data gets written to both of the disks for sure. But when you read from RAID, it can use the data only from the master-disk since RAID-controller doesn't know whether the seconds "slave"-disk has the same info. So, in this mode reads aren't distributed across both of the disks, as they could be.

would the synchronize action (as I don't see anything else available) help?

Yep.

Comments

[SyRenity]

The size of RAID1 is 1TB. The RAID was re-created, so no rebuild was needed or happened.

[SyRenity]

Thanks, can anyone with IBM/Adaptec RAID expirience comment on this? The Syncrhonize operation is quite long and disk-trashing, so I'd like to be sure it will sort things out in our specific enviroment.

[poige]

Well, it's long, yeah, but anyway you've not other options left. :-)

[SyRenity]

Hm, more then 24 hours have passed, and the status is still Quick Initialize. Should it take some more time to switch to Optimal, or I still will have to run the Synchronize action?

[alvosu]

First, better restart.

[SyRenity]

I did this multiple times since the RAID re-creation, and still have this status.

[alvosu]

Status in "ServeRAID Manager" or RAID BIOS?

[SyRenity]

The ServerRAID windows application.

[alvosu]

Try look status in RAID BIOS.

[poige]

I think alvosu is mistaken, actually. How those 1024 (or N) sectors relates to going Optimal is unclear. I'd repeat, you have to re-sync the RAID instead.

[I say Reinstate Monica]

While the generic advice in this question to "Verify with fix" is likely to answer the OPs question, the text of this answer is a copy-paste from Adaptec's support site regarding their controllers. Proper attribution is needed in the least.