Dell PERC Question (Server Down)
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@scottalanmiller said in Dell PERC Question (Server Down):
@BRRABill said in Dell PERC Question (Server Down):
@scottalanmiller said
It's possible that the PERC is bad, I suppose.
Why would you think that as opposed to it being the disks?
Or are you just spitballing ideas?
Of course DELL would say it was the disks, but the first thing that @BradfromxByte said the first time was that it had to be the disk. It was the guys from EDGE that said no.
Just saying that it is one of the potential culprits. The disks are not failing per se, they are going foreign. While it is certainly possible that the disks are at fault, doesn't it seem more likely to be the controller? What likely failure condition on a disk would result in the controller thinking that it is a foreign device?
I'm tending to agree with Scott here - it seems really odd for the controller to consider the drives and their config to be completely foreign. Of course this is the problem that we've been talking about ever since one of my first postings with Scott on SW well over 5 years ago - When you're mixing vendors, at what point will someone capitulate that it's their stuff that's broken.
Scott's been saying since that time, oh so long ago, that Dell (in this case) can't refuse to provide warranty/support on their equipment just because you're using someone else's drives. This looks like a good case of time to prove that.
Also, you could be having two problems - A drive (0:0) and the Perc controller could be bad. In this case, perhaps when the drive freaks out for a moment it's causing the Perc to freak out too.
Of course I suppose the drive could be freaking out so badly out of Dell's expectation as to cause the Perc to loose it's mind, but that seems .... you pick a word.
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Yes, Dell has a responsibility to support the PERC, but only if the PERC is at fault. That's what makes this a tough situation that we don't know where the fault lies.
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@Dashrender said
Scott's been saying since that time, oh so long ago, that Dell (in this case) can't refuse to provide warranty/support on their equipment just because you're using someone else's drives. This looks like a good case of time to prove that.
DELL has actually been great about supporting these. They never really say anything. I kind of cringe waiting for it, but they support with no issue.
Of course, when they look through the logs, they are filled with WARNINGS about non-DELL equipment. They mention that.
But they've been helpful so far.
That's another thing that is so weird. The drives are now showing up a green checks, which they are not supposed to do.
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@BRRABill said in Dell PERC Question (Server Down):
@Dashrender said
Scott's been saying since that time, oh so long ago, that Dell (in this case) can't refuse to provide warranty/support on their equipment just because you're using someone else's drives. This looks like a good case of time to prove that.
DELL has actually been great about supporting these. They never really say anything. I kind of cringe waiting for it, but they support with no issue.
Of course, when they look through the logs, they are filled with WARNINGS about non-DELL equipment. They mention that.
But they've been helpful so far.
That's another thing that is so weird. The drives are now showing up a green checks, which they are not supposed to do.
They aren't? I thought was the whole point of these Edge drives - that they are compliant and don't have issues with Dell stuff.
But what do I know?
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So what's the plan here? I see three possibilities.
- replace at least drive 0:0 with a new Edge drive
- replace the Perc
- replace SSDs with Dell drives.
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@Dashrender said
They aren't? I thought was the whole point of these Edge drives - that they are compliant and don't have issues with Dell stuff.
But what do I know?
I'm not going to speak for anyone at EDGE or xByte. But it seems like there are pockets of issues.
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@Dashrender said in Dell PERC Question (Server Down):
So what's the plan here? I see three possibilities.
- replace at least drive 0:0 with a new Edge drive
- replace the Perc
- replace SSDs with Dell drives.
I heard back from EDGE.
Basically the tech said that while he has never seen this exact issue, he has seen issues that are almost identical, and that they have a special model of the drive I have (I have the 3X) to fix these issues.
So, I am going to cross my fingers and give that a try.
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That sounds promising.
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I also want to emphasize that xByte is a great company to deal with. I would not hesitate to use them at any time.
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Basically the tech said that while he has never seen this exact issue, he has seen issues that are almost identical, and that they have a special model of the drive I have (I have the 3X) to fix these issues.
We(xByte) have not seen or tested the Edge 3X drives and before feeling comfortable with this solution we would need to fully test the drives in a variety of Dell servers and PERC controllers. In the interest of getting this fully resolved as soon as possible, we are going to replace the Edge drives with Dell branded Enterprise SSD's.
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See my post right above the one from @todd-at-xByte
What a great company. I seriously wouldn't look anywhere else for any DELL stuff you need.
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@todd-at-xByte said in Dell PERC Question (Server Down):
Basically the tech said that while he has never seen this exact issue, he has seen issues that are almost identical, and that they have a special model of the drive I have (I have the 3X) to fix these issues.
We(xByte) have not seen or tested the Edge 3X drives and before feeling comfortable with this solution we would need to fully test the drives in a variety of Dell servers and PERC controllers. In the interest of getting this fully resolved as soon as possible, we are going to replace the Edge drives with Dell branded Enterprise SSD's.
Wow - awesome.
So what are you doing for future customers who want SSDs in Dell servers? Is the only option now the Dell SSDs?
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@Dashrender I think both xByte and EDGE would likely look to do more testing before completely ending the relationship.
There is already a relationship there. . .
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I imagine they will also look at my drives when I send them back and try to figure out what went wrong.
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@BRRABill said in Dell PERC Question (Server Down):
I imagine they will also look at my drives when I send them back and try to figure out what went wrong.
The drives will indeed go back to Edge. They have updated their firmware based on other cases like this in the past.
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@todd-at-xByte these were a new line of drives to begin with, right?
I think you just recently switched, right?
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@BRRABill said in Dell PERC Question (Server Down):
@todd-at-xByte these were a new line of drives to begin with, right?
I think you just recently switched, right?
Not exactly. Edge rebranded the 960 Boost Pro Plus drives we were selling to E3 to consolidate their line. Edge stated that the 960 E3's were exactly the same as their 960 Boost Pro Plus.
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@DustinB3403 said in Dell PERC Question (Server Down):
@Dashrender I think both xByte and EDGE would likely look to do more testing before completely ending the relationship.
There is already a relationship there. . .
Awww - well I meant they would suggest Dell's only as long as they hadn't tested and resolved any issues with the new E3s
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@todd-at-xByte said in Dell PERC Question (Server Down):
@BRRABill said in Dell PERC Question (Server Down):
@todd-at-xByte these were a new line of drives to begin with, right?
I think you just recently switched, right?
Not exactly. Edge rebranded the 960 Boost Pro Plus drives we were selling to E3 to consolidate their line. Edge stated that the 960 E3's were exactly the same as their 960 Boost Pro Plus.
How long had/have you been selling the Boost Pro Plus drives? And were there ever any issues with them?
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So, the array went bye-bye again. Actually, it was just drive 1:0. (I'm still wondering if there is just something off with that drive.)
Anyway, I said, the hell with this, time to get these new DELL drives in there.
So the array came up degraded (just running on 1:1). I Rebooted and went into the PERC config. I unplugged 1:0 (which was missing anyway), and plugged the DELL drive into 1:2. It instantly powered up, and the PERC config saw it. I added it as a hot spare, and it instantly started rebuilding. AWESOME!
So I rebooted the server. As soon as the server rebooted, the LED on the DELL drive started blinking. Hmm, that's odd, I think. Of course an error comes up, saying drives are missing. I look at the DELL drive, no LEDs. WTF.
I'll cut through the 2+ hours on support with DELL, trying everything. They basically said, the array is toast. Great.
I have 2 more of these DELL SSDs, so I think, WTH, let me try one of them. I plug it in, and reboot a few times with it outside the array. Comes back. So the big test, try it with the array. I do the same steps. But this time when it reboots, the array stays up.
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!
It is still currently rebuilding, so we shall see where we get with this. I wonder if the one drive was just a lemon. DELL says no, but I think the results say otherwise.
