1

We have a HP proliant DL385 G7 server that’s a vmware ESXI host with a failed hard drive – the drive is a HP SAS-MDL, 7.2 K, 2TB. When we boot the server we get the attached message and we are not sure which option we should go for (f1 or f2) because we have important data on the hard drive they we don’t want to risk loosing and no recent backup. Is it worth trying to risk booting up the faulty hard drive by accepting data loss and re-enabling the logical drive?

The hard drive seems to spin up and not making any noise so I don't think its a mechanical related failure.

enter image description here

EDIT The disk is not in any kind of storage array, this is poor config (obviously) from the previous IT guy

ewwhite
  • 194,921
  • 91
  • 434
  • 799
Josh Purcell
  • 11
  • 1
  • 3
  • Could you provide more information, such as the current logical drive configuration, the drives connected to each slot, etc? Of course, press "F1" first to not do anything. – Raymond Tau Feb 11 '15 at 11:53
  • 6 x 2TB drives. This disk is NOT in an array – Josh Purcell Feb 11 '15 at 12:03
  • Okay, I've just checked the Array setup and it runs out that this disk is configured as the ONLY disk in a RAID 0 configuration (Why you would do that I don't know) – Josh Purcell Feb 11 '15 at 12:07

3 Answers3

1

Look at the lights on the drive...

  • Are they amber?
  • Why do you think the drive failed?
  • If the drive failed, why is the server off (or why was it powered off)?
  • I'm sorry the drive is not in a RAID, but seeing that also indicates that your server/RAID controller firmware and ESXi installation are likely outdated.
  • There are older Smart Array firmware revisions with bugs that could offline certain disks.
  • Looking at your screenshot, I see: an unplugged ILO with 5 year-old firmware, 5 year-old RAID controller firmware and FIVE logical drives in a server that has SIX drive bays. So, all of your disks are likely in RAID 0.
  • ESXi doesn't support software RAID, so all of the data on that server is at risk.

When prompted with:

Logical drive(s) disabled due to possible data loss.
Select "F1" to continue with logical drive(s) disabled
Select "F2" to accept data loss and to re-enable logical drive(s)
RESUME = "F1" OR "F2" KEY

Press F2... There aren't many scenarios where pressing F1 is useful. It's just the default to prevent any unintended actions.

See if the server boots up.

Also see:

data lost with RAID5 on proliant DL360 when drives fail

HP SmartArray P400: How to repair failed logical drive?

HP P410i Array Controller and lost logical Drive

Replace HP Smart Array E200i without losing data

Repair HP SmartArray p410i

logical drives on HP Smart Array P800 not recognized after rebooting

Community
  • 1
ewwhite
  • 194,921
  • 91
  • 434
  • 799
  • Hey @ewwhite thanks for your suggestions; when we came in the disk was lit up amber. I've gone down the F2 route and we're backing up the data at the moment. Thankfully we're replacing the entire VM infrastructure in the next couple of weeks. (Although I am really wanting to move to Hyper-V!) I plugged in the ILO and there was no disk-related info whatsoever, but as you have said it is an old firmware version. There is one RAID 1+0 array and the rest of the individual disks are all configed in individual RAID0 arrays with only one disk! – Josh Purcell Feb 11 '15 at 14:07
0

hum not a fun problem. This could be a raid card problem ...

try to start without repair (f1) if its okey just change the drive. you can change it "online" .

YuKYuK
  • 627
  • 3
  • 14
  • Failed to mention, this drive was not in a RAID array. Don't ask, the previous IT guy didn't know what he was doing. – Josh Purcell Feb 11 '15 at 11:49
0

In the end I hit F2. The disk was working but it seemed more than stupid to keep our services reliant on the drive, much to the directors' wishes.

I've sent the drive off for recovery and it looks like bad blocks are all over the thing. They're in the middle of recovering the data but it's looking like Monday before we get it back and I dread to think how [un]reliable the data will be!

Josh Purcell
  • 11
  • 1
  • 3