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RAID-5 potential for data loss with ServeRAID under stress - ServeRAID

Troubleshooting


Problem

RETAIN tip H09680: ServeRAID - RAID-5 potential for data loss with ServeRAID under stress

Resolving The Problem

Source
RETAIN tip H09680

Symptom
 Under high disk I/O with ServeRAID 5.10.21, 5.11.05, 6.00.31, or 6.10.24 firmware, RAID-5 logical drives in write through mode may experience data loss which can result in database errors and/or blue screens in Microsoft Windows during subsequent reboots.ServeRAID 5i controllers with firmware 5.10.21, 5.11.05, and 6.00.31 may be affected by this symptom in the configuration described above.Data loss has been observed only during periods of extreme activity in Microsoft Exchange and SQL applications.

  • ServeRAID Controllers with 4.84.01 (and earlier) firmware are not affected.
  • ServeRAID Controllers with 5.11.06 (special build) firmware are not affected.
  • ServeRAID 5i with firmware 5.11.06 or 6.10.24 are not affected.
  • ServeRAID 6M and ServeRAID 6i controllers are not affected.

Affected configurations
 The system is configured with the following options:

  • Netfinity ServeRAID-4L Ultra160 SCSI Controller, option part number 37L6091, replacement part number (FRU) 09N9540
  • Netfinity ServeRAID-4M Ultra160 SCSI Controller, option part number 37L6080, replacement part number (FRU) 37L7258
  • Netfinity ServeRAID-4M Ultra160 SCSI Controller (Japan), option part number 19K0565, replacement part number (FRU) 00N9543 (Japan)
  • ServeRAID-4Lx Ultra160 SCSI Controller, option part number 06P5740, replacement part number (FRU) 06P5741
  • ServeRAID-4Mx Ultra160 SCSI Controller, option part number 06P5736, replacement part number (FRU) 06P5737
  • ServeRAID-5i Controller, option part number 25P3492, replacement part number (FRU) 02R0970 replaces 32P0016

The ServeRAID Firmware levels affected are:

  • 5.10.21
  • 5.11.05
  • 6.00.31
  • 6.10.24

Notes:

  1. 4.84.01 or earlier firmware levels are not affected.
  2. 5.11.06 (special build) is not affected.

Solution
 The behavior is corrected for all affected ServeRAID controllers with firmware version 6.10.70, and higher. The firmware is available from the Servers - ServeRAID Software Matrix.

(The 4M, 4L, 4Mx, and 4Lx code was fixed in 6.10.70.)
(The 5i code was fixed in 6.10.24.)

Details
 Under extreme data I/O with write through mode RAID-5 logical drives, ServeRAID firmware 5.10 and 5.11 may incorrectly make data inaccessible. Subsequent accesses to the data will result in errors indicating the data is lost. The firmware bug was identified and corrected.

Notes:

  1. The ServeRAID 5i code was fixed in 6.10.24. The ServeRAID 4M, 4L, 4Mx, and 4Lx code was (inadvertently) not fixed with 6.10.24. The ServeRAID 4M, 4L, 4Mx, and 4Lx code was fixed in 6.10.70.
  2. 6.10.70 does not do anything more for 5i than 6.10.24.

Document Location

Worldwide

Operating System

System x Hardware Options:All operating systems listed

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Document Information

Modified date:
29 January 2019

UID

ibm1MIGR-50419

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