IBM Support

ATA133 RAID controller experiences incomplete rebuilds and loss of boot partitions greater than 8 GB - IBM eServer xSeries, IntelliStation

Troubleshooting


Problem

Two problems have been identified with the IBM ATA133 RAID controller.

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip H177561

Symptom

Two problems have been identified with the IBM ATA133 RAID controller with the following symptoms:

  1. After a failed Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is replaced, and a rebuild operation is initiated, the rebuild operation incorrectly indicates successful completion, but no data is actually written to the target HDD. Using an example in which the "slave" drive of a mirrored pair goes defunct, is replaced, and rebuilt, the following results can occur:
    1. If the replacement slave HDD is new or contains different data, the controller retrieves half the requested data from the master HDD and half from the slave HDD. The OS will then flag errors when it processes unexpected data received from the slave drives.
    2. If the originally failed HDD, or a HDD with identical data, is used as the replacement drive, the data retrieved from the replacement slave drive will be good as long as the data on the master HDD had not been modified within the time that the slave was defunct or was being rebuilt. If the data on the master HDD is changed while the slave HDD is defunct or while it is being rebuilt, then the data is no longer mirrored after the rebuild completes. In rare cases in which the data is changed, but not added to or deleted from the master HDD, this can result in stale data being falsely presented to the OS without error.
  2. Operating System installations fail with a blue screen when written to boot partitions greater than 8.0 GB in Hitachi Deskstar 180 GXP hard disk drives. Non-boot partitions are not affected and are not limited to size constraints.
Affected configuration

The system may be any of the following IBM eServer xSeries servers:

  • xSeries 335, type 8830, any model
  • xSeries 335, type 8676, any model
  • xSeries 305, type 8673, any model
  • xSeries 205, type 8480, any model
The system may be any of the following IBM IntelliStations:
  • IntelliStation M Pro, type 6219, any model
  • IntelliStation Z Pro, type 6221, any model

The system is configured with the following option(s):

  • IBM ATA133 RAID Controller, option part number 71P8592, FRU part number 71P8603

The system is configured with one or more of the following option(s):

  • Hitachi Deskstar 180 GXP IC35L040AVV207 HDD 40GB, option part number 07N9673, replacement part number (FRU)19K1568
  • Hitachi Deskstar 180 GXP IC35L060AVV207 HDD 60GB, option part number 07N9674, replacement part number (FRU)19K1570
  • Hitachi Deskstar 180 GXP IC35L080AVV207 HDD 80GB, option part number 07N9675, replacement part number (FRU)24P3665
  • Hitachi Deskstar 180 GXP IC35L120AVV207 HDD 120GB, option part number 07N9676, replacement part number (FRU)18P7642
  • Maxtor HDD 60GB, option part number 24P3743, replacement part number (FRU) 19K1570
  • Maxtor HDD 80GB, option part number 24P3783, replacement part number (FRU) 24P3665
  • Maxtor HDD 120GB, Hoption part number 24P3784, replacement part number (FRU) 18P7642
Solution

This behavior has been corrected in the IBM ATA 133 RAID Controller BIOS Flash Disk version 2.7.05291521I. Click here to download IBM ATA 133 RAID Controller BIOS Flash Disk version 2.7.05291521I

Note: The following precautions are necessary until the updated BIOS has been installed:

  1. If a hard disk drive fails in a mirrored pair, remove it from the system, and do not replace it. Do not initiate a rebuild operation.
  2. Uninstall the Hot Spare drive if installed to avoid automatic rebuilds

Document Location

Worldwide

Operating System

IntelliStation Pro:All operating systems listed

Older System x:All operating systems listed

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Document Information

Modified date:
29 January 2019

UID

ibm1MIGR-51077

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