SCSI Disk continually fails

[adamf]

I have a Dell PowerEdge 2600, 4 years old and out of warranty. Back in February disk 0:5 failed. At the time the server was a DC so I took the decision to replace all the disks knowing that it's life as a DC was only a couple more months - it's now used for Sophos and WSUS.

Today a disk in the same slot (0:5) failed again and continues to fail even after a rebuild which makes me think it's not or wasn't the disk in the first place or i've just been unlucky. It has been suggested that the SCSI cable may be at fault. Could there be anything else?

[kestrel1]

Could be the SCSI controller. Is it being terminated correctly?

[adamf]

It's not been opened, nothing has changed inside to suggest it's not being terminated correctly.

[torledo]

I have a Dell PowerEdge 2600, 4 years old and out of warranty. Back in February disk 0:5 failed. At the time the server was a DC so I took the decision to replace all the disks knowing that it's life as a DC was only a couple more months - it's now used for Sophos and WSUS.

Today a disk in the same slot (0:5) failed again and continues to fail even after a rebuild which makes me think it's not or wasn't the disk in the first place or i've just been unlucky. It has been suggested that the SCSI cable may be at fault. Could there be anything else?

does the rebuild fail or does the rebuild complete each time but the disk in 0:5 continues to indicate a hardware failure ?

have you tried reseating the disk when the LED indicates a disk failure ?

I would be tempted to update the perc 4i firmware if possible, aswell as update the server bios to the most recent versions. Might also be an idea to update the firmware of the individual disks that reside in the same enclosure to make sure every component is as up to date as it can be on a 4 year old server. The physical connections such as reseating disks and checking scsi backplane connections i'm sure you've checked.

keep us up to date on how you get on, dell RAID troubleshooting is a really interesting subject area for me. I've had my fair share of mini-dramas with dell RAID hardware.

[Dos_Box]

Indeed. Go here and help yourself to the latest builds: Drivers & Downloads

Click on Systems Management and download the Dell Systems Build and Update Utility (the 659 MB ISO image). That will update ALL components requiring attention.