SUPPORT COMMUNICATION - CUSTOMER ADVISORY
Document ID: c00577589
Version: 1
Advisory: Configuring Logical Drives with RAID Fault Tolerance on Some Smart Array Controllers and Using Multiples of 200 GB (or greater) of Physical Disk Capacity from Each Drive May Cause Excessive Disk Activity
NOTICE: The information in this document, including products and software versions, is current as of the Release Date. This document is subject to change without notice.
Release Date: 2005-12-07
Last Updated: 2005-12-07
DESCRIPTION
Configuring logical drives (also known as logical volumes) with RAID fault tolerance and using multiples of 200 GB of capacity from each physical drive may cause excessive disk activity. This may occur when logical drives that are configured for RAID fault tolerance use at least 200 GB of capacity from each of the physical drives in the array. For example, this may occur when an array of two 250 GB drives (a 200 GB RAID 1 logical drive) is created, or when an array of three 300 GB drives (a 400 GB RAID 5 logical drive) is created.
In addition, normal background processes, such as Dynamic Sector Repair, are unable to occur, and will not progress as expected. This can cause continuous heavy disk I/O on each physical drive attached to the controller, including drives on the same controller that may not be part of this logical drive.
Affected logical drives can be identified using the Array Diagnostic Utility (ADU) and viewing the value displayed in the "Sectors Per Drive" field. Values in the following ranges of the "Sectors Per Drive" field would indicate that this behavior may occur:
429,496,729 � 429,497,729 (200 GB used per drive)
858,993,458 � 858,994,458 (400GB used per drive)
SCOPE
Any ProLiant server configured with any of the following Smart Array controllers with logical drives configured for RAID fault tolerance configurations:
- Smart Array 5i and 532 controllers with firmware version 2.38 (or earlier)
- Smart Array 5312 controller with firmware version 2.38 (or earlier)
- Smart Array 5300 controller with firmware version 2.92 (or earlier)
- Smart Array 4200 and 4250ES (all firmware versions)
- Smart Array 431(all firmware versions)
Note: Smart Array 6i, 641, 642, 6400 and the P600 controllers are not affected.
RESOLUTION
The following Smart Array Controllers are not affected if the latest firmware is in use:
- Smart Array 5i and 532 Controllers with firmware version 2.62 (or later):
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/storage/us/download/22660.html
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/storage/us/download/22621.html
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/storage/us/download/22622.html
- Smart Array 5312 Controller with firmware version 2.58 (or later):
- Smart Array 5300 Controller with firmware version 3.54 (or later):
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