User guide

The purpose of fault-tolerant configurations on the Compaq RA4000
Controller is to protect against data loss due to drive failure. Although the
RA4000 Controller firmware is designed to protect against normal drive
failure, it is imperative that you perform the correct actions to recover from a
drive failure without inadvertently inducing any additional drive failures.
Multiple drive failures in the same array generally result in data loss
(exceptions include failures following activation of a spare drive, and failure
of drives in a mirroring configuration that are not mirrored to one another).
A drive failure can be recognized by the system operator in one of several
ways:
■ Amber LED will be illuminated on failed drives in a hot-pluggable tray.
This, however, assumes the storage system is powered-on and connected
properly. Note that the amber LED may be illuminated briefly when a
hot-pluggable drive is inserted - this is normal.
■ Amber LED will be illuminated on the front of the Compaq RA4000
Array if failed drives are inside (other problems such as fan failure or
over-temperature conditions will also cause this LED to illuminate).
■ A Power-On Self-Test (POST) message will list failed drives whenever
the system is restarted (assumes that one or more good drives are
detected by the controller).