Drive - Loss of Path Redundancy

What Caused the Problem?

The environmental card has lost communication with a drive, indicating an internal port problem on either the environmental card or the drive. The Recovery Guru Details area provides specific information you will need as you follow the recovery steps.

Caution
Electrostatic discharge can damage sensitive components. Use a grounding wrist strap or other anti-static precautions before removing or handling components.

Important Notes

Recovery Steps

1

Fix any other problems reported by the Recovery Guru before attempting to fix this problem.

2

To determine the non-working channel, start at the drive mini-hub on the controller enclosure corresponding to the working channel (refer to the labels on the back of the controller enclosure if needed).

3

Trace the cable from the working channel to the environmental card in the affected drive enclosure reported in the details area.

Caution
Do not disconnect any cables on the working channel. Doing so will cause data loss!

4

Locate the other environmental card in the affected drive enclosure (this is the card on the non-working channel).

5

Replace the environmental card on the non-working channel. Make sure the new card has the same enclosure ID as the failed environmental card.

6

Wait 40 seconds, and then select Recheck to rerun Recovery Guru to ensure that the problem has been fixed.

If Then
The problem has been fixed You are finished with this procedure. Do NOT go to step 7!
The problem has not been fixed Go to step 7.

7

You must replace the drive. Which procedure you use depends on the RAID level of the array associated with the affected drive. To determine the associated array, highlight the affected drive in the Physical View of the Subsystem Management Window and select Drive>>List Associated Components. Next highlight the associated array in the Logical View of the Subsystem Management Window.

If Then
The array is RAID 0 Go to "Replacing a Drive in a RAID 0 Array."
The array is RAID 1, 3, or 5 Go to "Replacing a Drive in a RAID 1, 3, or 5 Array."

Replacing a Drive in a RAID 0 Array

Use the following procedure if the affected array is RAID 0.

Caution
Use the Recovery Guru to fix any other reported problems before continuing with this procedure. Note that all logical drives in the Logical View of the Subsystem Management Window must be Optimal .

Recovery Steps

1

Stop all I/O to the affected logical drives.

2

Reseating the drive may clear up the path redundancy problem. Therefore, locate the affected drive and remove and replace it.

3

Wait 40 seconds, and then select Recheck to rerun Recovery Guru to ensure that the problem has been fixed.
If Then
The problem has been fixed You are finished with this procedure. Do NOT go to step 4!
The problem has not been fixed Go to step 4.

4

Back up all data on the affected logical drives. (Step 5 will destroy all data on the affected logical drives.)

Note: To the operating system (OS), a failed logical drive is the same as a failed non-RAID drive. Refer to the OS documentation for requirements concerning failed drives and apply them where necessary.

5

Highlight the affected drive in the Physical View of the Subsystem Management Window and select Drive>>Fail. The affected logical drives become Failed .

6

Remove the failed drive (its fault indicator light should be on).

Note: Make sure the replacement drive has a capacity equal to or greater than the failed drive.

7

Wait 30 seconds, then insert the new drive. Its fault indicator light may come on for a short time (one minute or less).

Note: Wait until the replaced drive is ready (its fault indicator light must be off) before attempting to initialize the logical drives in step 8.

8

Highlight the array associated with the replaced drive in the Logical View of the Subsystem Management Window and select Array>>Initialize.

  • The logical drives in the array are initialized, one at a time.
  • To monitor initialization progress for a logical drive, highlight the logical drive in the Logical View of the Subsystem Management Window and select Logical Drive>>Properties. Note that when the initialization is completed, the progress bar is no longer displayed.
  • When initialization is completed, all logical drives in the array are Optimal .

Important: Make sure you save this procedure by selecting Save As. Once you perform step 9 and fix the failure, you will not be able to access the information in steps 10 and 11 from Recovery Guru.

9

Select Recheck to rerun the Recovery Guru to ensure that the failure has been fixed.

10

Add the affected logical drives back to the operating system. You may need to reboot the system to see the re-initialized logical drives.

Note: Do not start I/O to these logical drives until you have restored data from backup.

11

Restore the data for the affected logical drives from backup.

Replacing a Drive in a RAID 1, 3, or 5 Array

Use the following procedure if the affected array is RAID 1, 3, or 5.

Recovery Steps

1

You should stop all I/O to all logical drives in the array associated with the affected drive to reduce the possibility of data loss. If another drive fails in this array while you are performing this procedure, you will lose data.

2

Reseating the drive may clear up the path redundancy problem. Therefore, locate the affected drive and remove and replace it.

3

Wait 40 seconds, and then select Recheck to rerun Recovery Guru to ensure that the problem has been fixed.
If Then
The problem has been fixed You are finished with this procedure. Do NOT go to step 4!
The problem has not been fixed Go to step 4.

4

Although not required, you should back up all data on all logical drives associated with the affected drive.

5

Highlight the affected drive in the Physical View of the Subsystem Management Window and select Drive>>Fail. The associated logical drives become Degraded .

6

Remove the failed drive (its fault indicator light should be on).

Note: Make sure the replacement drive has a capacity equal to or greater than the failed drive.

7

Wait 30 seconds, then insert the new drive. Its fault indicator light may come on for a short time (one minute or less).

8

Select Recheck to rerun the Recovery Guru to ensure that the failure has been fixed.