Blue screen or I/O errors encountered in Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 - IBM ServerRAID M1015

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H203130

Symptom

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (any release) operating system installed on the local storage subsystem, which is controlled by ServeRAID M1015 SAS or SATA Controller, Option part number 46M0831, can experience a bug check under heavy work loads.

The same configuration also produces I/O errors and/or Microsoft Windows NTFS 57 warnings during heavy I/O, including file copy operations.

In the event of the failure the operating system may unexpectedly reboot or crash, presenting the user with a blue screen with one of the following stop errors:

Some systems have not experienced blue screen failures, but instead shown I/O errors during I/O operations, such as backups and file copy operations:

The other symptoms include I/O errors during Microsoft Windows or command prompt copy operations. Finally, the Microsoft Windows System Log may reveal NTFS warnings of event ID 57:

Affected configurations

The system is configured with at least one of the following:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, any Service Pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, any Service Pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, any Service Pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, any Service Pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Datacenter 32-bit, any Service Pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Datacenter 64-bit, any Service Pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Enterprise 32-bit, any Service Pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Enterprise 64-bit, any Service Pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Standard 32-bit, any Service Pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Standard 64-bit, any Service Pack
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011, any Service Pack

The system is configured with one or more of the following IBM Options:

• ServeRAID M1015 SAS or SATA Controller, Option part number 46M0831, replacement part number 46M0861

This tip is not system specific.

The 4.35 device driver for the ServeRAID M1015 controller is affected.

• ServeRAID M1015 controller

The system has the symptom described above.

Note: This does not imply that the network operating system will work under all combinations of hardware and software.

Please see the compatibility page for more information: http://www.ibm.com/systems/info/x86servers/serverproven/compat/us/

Solution

This behavior is corrected in IBM ServeRAID M Series and MR10 Series SAS controller driver v4.36 for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or 2008.

The referenced file is available from the "Support matrix - SAS/SATA II (ServeRAID-MR10i, MR10ie, MR10il, MR10is, MR10k, MR10M, M5014, M5015, and M5025)" at the following URL:

• http://www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-507301

Additional information

A change was made after driver level 4.32 that affected only the M1015 adapter. This change was to address performance issues. As a result, the M1015 adapter experienced the above-mentioned issues.

The workaround of back-leveling the device driver alleviates the symptoms by going back to a state where the change was not in effect.

The fix resolves the symptoms by correcting what had been introduced after driver level 4.32.