HP DL180 G6 amber light but drive is OK

Question

We have an HP DL180 G6 with 25 SFF SATA drives, running 64-bit Debian Linux. A drive recently failed, so we replaced the failed drive with a new, identical part from HP. The disk controller rebuilt the logical volume and the hpacucli command now shows that the logical drive and physical drive are both OK. However, the drive still has a a solid amber light on the front bezel. Another sys admin here told me this happened when he replaced a different drive, and rebooting the server fixed it. I'd really like to avoid rebooting this server because it's about to go into production, and I don't want to go down the path of rebooting every time a drive fails. Is there something else which can be done to change the front LED back to green?

EDIT: Adding hpcaucli output as requsted by @ewwhite

root@debian:~# hpacucli ctrl all show config

Smart Array P410 in Slot 3                (sn: PACCR9VYCJ2V  )

   array A (SATA, Unused Space: 0  MB)


      logicaldrive 1 (149.0 GB, RAID 1, OK)

      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 160 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 160 GB, OK)

   array B (SATA, Unused Space: 0  MB)


      logicaldrive 2 (9.1 TB, RAID 50, OK)

      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:0 (port 1I:box 1:bay 0, SATA, 500 GB, OK, spare)

   Enclosure SEP (Vendor ID HP, Model DL18x25SFF) 248 (WWID: 500E004AAAAAAA3E, Port: 1I, Box: 1)

   Expander 250 (WWID: 500E004AAAAAAA3F, Port: 1I, Box: 1)

   SEP (Vendor ID PMCSIERA, Model  SRC 8x6G) 249 (WWID: 500143800674C4BF)

root@debian:~# hpacucli ctrl all show detail;

Smart Array P410 in Slot 3
   Bus Interface: PCI
   Slot: 3
   Serial Number: PACCR9VYCJ2V
   Cache Serial Number: PAAVP9VYFFHP
   RAID 6 (ADG) Status: Disabled
   Controller Status: OK
   Hardware Revision: C
   Firmware Version: 5.70
   Rebuild Priority: Medium
   Expand Priority: Medium
   Surface Scan Delay: 3 secs
   Surface Scan Mode: Idle
   Queue Depth: Automatic
   Monitor and Performance Delay: 60  min
   Elevator Sort: Enabled
   Degraded Performance Optimization: Disabled
   Inconsistency Repair Policy: Disabled
   Wait for Cache Room: Disabled
   Surface Analysis Inconsistency Notification: Disabled
   Post Prompt Timeout: 15 secs
   Cache Board Present: True
   Cache Status: OK
   Cache Ratio: 25% Read / 75% Write
   Drive Write Cache: Disabled
   Total Cache Size: 512 MB
   Total Cache Memory Available: 400 MB
   No-Battery Write Cache: Disabled
   Cache Backup Power Source: Batteries
   Battery/Capacitor Count: 1
   Battery/Capacitor Status: OK
   SATA NCQ Supported: True

The output of `hpacucli ctrl all show config` or `hpacucli ctrl all show config detail` would be handy either here or in a http://pastebin.com. Also, firmware revisions are pretty important. The hpacucli output will show the controller info. Provide and we can give a better answer. — ewwhite, Jun 30 '14 at 13:22
@ewwhite, thanks for the info. I included the hpacucli output. And now that I look at it a little more closely, I noticed that all of the drives show the same location (physical, box, and bay IDs). That doesn't seem quite right... — Dave, Jun 30 '14 at 13:32
Yep, they are all HP drives. The server contains 2 160 GB drives (spare P/N 530932-001) in a RAID 1 mirror and 23 500 GB drives (spare P/N 508035-001) in a RAID 5. The drive in question is the drive #1 in the chassis, it's a 160 GB drive and part of the RAID 1 mirror. — Dave, Jun 30 '14 at 14:13

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 30 '14 at 14:01

1

So here's what I'd do.

The HP ProLiant DL180 G6 model you have is a 25-bay unit. There's a SAS expander embedded on the drive backplane and two SAS SFF-8087 cables routed to an HP Smart Array P410 PCIe controller.

Part of that is why you see the odd port:bay presentation.

I'd upgrade the backplane firmware and get your P410 controller to the last revision of 6.40. You should be able to accomplish both with the HP Service Pack for ProLiant DVD.

answered Jun 30 '14 at 14:01

ewwhite

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Thank you for the suggestion and the link. I ran the automatic firmware update from the SPP DVD and now the correct information shows in hpacucli. Rebooting the server cleared the amber LED on the replaced drive, so I'll have to wait until we have another failure to see if the firmware updates have also resolved the original issue. – Dave Jun 30 '14 at 15:33
I mean, you *could* pull a disk... :) – ewwhite Jun 30 '14 at 15:43

HP DL180 G6 amber light but drive is OK

1 Answers1