RAID Problem diagnostic help desperately needed.

From: Phil Ellett (techserver_at_cyberws.co.uk)
Date: 08/25/03 

Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 04:21:48 +0100

Hi folks,

I have been trying for over three months to work out the source of my
problems using hardware RAID 1 with a Promise TX2000 controller, two 120Gb
IBM/Hitachi drives and a Asus A7M266-D Mboard with single XP2400+ chip, 1Gb
RAM.

The symptoms in ALL cases are that the RAID array fails and goes into a
CRITICAL state.

The following are my observations and conclusions and I would welcome ANY
comments.

(O = Observation, C = Conclusion)

O1: I have managed to get the array to fail by simply completing the
"Define Array" section of the RAID BIOS during the disk to disk copying
state of the setup procedure. (problem happens with shipped 2.0.0.28 and
latest 2.0.0.33 BIOS versions).

C1: Problem is OS and/or driver independent

O2: Problem still exists when card is installed in another machine.

C2: Problem is psu/motherboard/memory/processor etc. independent

O3: Drives pass "Drive Fitness Test" software testing either on independent
machines or by testing using the Promise card in situe as test software
detects seperate channels on controller allowing each drive to be tested
independently.

C3: Fault does not lie with drives.

O4: In one test (off-site) RAID array failed using round ATA100 cable but
appears to work fine with old standard 40 way ATA33 flat cables and two
(non-matching) older 40 and 60Gb IBM drives.

C4: Problem relates to corruption of data over IDE cables.

O5: Test repeated (on-site) with same 40 way ATA33 flat cables as above but
with IBM/Hitachi 120Gb 120GX drives. Problem STILL present.

C5: Problem may relate to a transfer speed exhibited by new 120GX drives but
not apparent on older drive due to decrease speed. Other possibility
(although I think unlikely) is noise on electrical circuit present on-site
but not a off-site test location. This however does not explain problem
exhibited with ATA100 round cables at off-site location.

The only sensible conclusion I can come up with from the above observations
is that my Promise TX2000 card exhibits an intermittent fault causing data
corruption that appears to be worse with higher data transfer rate and Non
flat cables. I am therefore assuming I have a faulty card and hence will be
returning it. Has anyone else come up with similar problems on this card
(or that of any other manufacturer), ie. is such a fault (manufacturing
fault?) possible such that replacing card with another one will fix the
problem.

Any advice or ideas for other test to accurately confirm which component is
a fault would be GREATLY appreciated. This my first (and at the current
rate) LAST venture into using RAID !!!!.

Thanks in advance,

Phil.
Sheffield.

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