Greetings all,
In 2011 Bristol bought for a LCG VM-hosting box:
Dell R510, Intel Xeon E5620 (4 x 2.4GHz), 24GB RAM, 9 x 300GB SAS 15K
Has PERC H700 hardware RAID controller that makes those 9 disks = 2TB /sda
in a RAID6; hosts site-bdii VM, APEL, 2 x CREAM-CE, squid, etc.
Does anyone else have a box like this? Has anyone had any disk errors
on it, requiring warranty disk replaced (supplied by Dell)?
How many disk errors so far?
Starting May 2013 disk 0:0:3 on Bristol's R510 logged major errors, & was
replaced in Aug 2013 (hotswap hardware RAID) under warranty from Dell.
(This was when I found out that logwatch - which I do read once a week -
*ignores* the Dell Server Administrator error messages about bad disk or
other error, logged in /var/log/messages - which I don't (didn't) look at
much. I've since added to logwatch so it reports those errors.)
In Oct 2013 disk 0:0:2 logged a few errors, then more in Dec. We got a
replacment from Dell in Dec & replaced it just before Christmas.
(The 9 disks are 0:0:0 to 0:0:8)
Then starting mid-Jan 2014 disk 0:0:4 logged a few errors, & has
continued to log errors with slowly increasing frequency.
This time Dell is suggesting that there may be some other problem than
just a disk (since the "bad disk/errors" seems to be getting a bit
strangely frequent). They say we need to shut the server down, create
some microsoft-boot-able-usb-thing, boot the server from that, & update
the firmware on all the drives.
(I'm not inclined to do this... if we have to all I can say is, it better
not wreck ANYTHING on the vm-hosting box!)
Has anyone else got a Dell R510 that has had similar issues & has either
had this advice from Dell, or done it*? If so, was the outcome good?
Bristol PP is in the market for another server, & the above experience
makes me want a DNUK, not a Dell....
* or even "done anything like it"? (with a good outcome)
Grateful for advice
Winnie Lacesso / 55% HPC Storage Admin, 20% Particle Physics, 25% SysOps
HH Wills Physics Laboratory, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TL, UK
University of Bristol
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