Issue with SAS raid controller drives

[Tinribs]

Hi All,

Old IBM X server with an LSI RAID controller as boot device with two Dell Cheetah 15K.6 SAS drives. One of the drives failed and the server became unusable. Have replaced the drive - they're not made anymore so we had to get a refurbished one. Booted up and the LSI controller says the RAID is syncing but the other drive (not the new one) is now showing predictive failure. I'm pretty sure the odds against both drives failing like this are slim. The server still says the drives are syncing but it will not boot into Windows (server 2016) - it just sticks at a black screen with the arrow cursor on it.

 

It's a simple mirrored array - I always thought they should be able to cope with missing one drive so I'm not sure

1) why the other old drive is now showing as predictive fail

2) why windows will not load

 

Am I looking at a parallel install to get it up and running again or do I really have a second dead drive?

 

Yes we do need a new server.... That's for the longer term, for now we just need to get this one up and running. It's our CCTV server and for some reason it wasn't included as the SLA for our IT support people...

[bald_pig]

Why is it against the odds? You have two drives that are the same age and have the same level of usage, I'd expect them to fail in a similar time. You may need to build a new array and restore from backup.

[Tinribs]

That makes sense except that I rebooted the server after reseating both drives and the predictive fail alert has gone away. Still says syncing and still not going into Windows though. Won't even go to the repair startup.

I've created a bootable usb stick and am going to try a repair

[3s-gtech]

Depending on the controller, some won't allow access to the array until it has finished syncing, which can take a long time. If you have a cursor though, Windows is booting up - the array will be very slow but be patient! You need to leave it on that screen over the weekend if necessary - rushing into things could cause you a lot of work!

[Tinribs]

Thanks for this. Sometimes I just need to be reminded to sit on my hands a while.

Gonna take your advice and let it churn. See what happens on Monday.

Have a great weekend...

[Tinribs]

OK - so it's Monday morning, The server says "Diagnosing Windows" now and the indicators on the drive suggest the mirror is still rebuilding. The only way to be sure is to reboot into the controller bios and check the status but that will not tell me how far along the rebuild is.

Straight choice as to reboot or not...

Ideas, suggestions?