Re: RAID-5 of 4x IBM IC35L073UCDY10 incompatible with SEAGATE ST373207LC

From: Arno Wagner (me_at_privacy.net)
Date: 05/04/05 

Date: 4 May 2005 14:02:38 GMT

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Victor Mataré <v.matare@lih.rwth-aachen.de> wrote:
> Victor Matare wrote:
>> John-Paul Stewart wrote:
>>
>>> Victor Mataré wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I'm running a RAID-5 of 4x IBM IC35L073UCDY10 on an ICP Vortex GDT8514RZ
>>>> SCSI/RAID-Controller, firmware 2.44.02-RC7B (current). It is to be
>>>> expanded by 2 SEAGATE ST373207LC, but the expand command in the
>>>> controller's console fails with the message "no suitable disks found".
>>>> This seems to be due to a compatibility issue of the IBM drives. The IBM
>>>> support doesn't seem to be of much help - the firmware update (S29A)
>>>> they sent me made no difference.
>>>> If anyone has experience with expanding RAID arrays of IBM disks or
>>>> similar situations, please tell me...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Some RAID controllers simply refuse to work unless all drives are
>>> identical brand and model. I don't think it's a compatability issue
>>> with the IBM drives so much as it's an issue with the controller.
>>> Check with the controller manufacturer for information; there's a
>>> chance they might have a workaround (if this is indeed your problem).
>>
>>
>> The controller definitely does support using different drives in a
>> single array. It even leaves a "tolerance gap" of about 10 MB of unused
>> space at the end of the disks to ensure that drives with a slightly
>> smaller capacity can still be added to the array. I'm pretty sure it's
>> an incompatibility issue with either the IBM- or the Seagate-disks.
>> If this can't be resolved, I'd appreciate some tips on how to find out
>> who (IBM, Seagate or maybe ICP Vortex) has been messing with the
>> standards there, in order to find someone to "blame" for this ;)
>>
>> thx4help,
>>

> Update:
> The guy who told me about that "tolerance gap" was wrong. I called ICP
> support and they said that if the disks being added are only a single
> sector smaller, the controller won't accept them. This seems to be the
> reason for my problem, as the Seagate drive are actually a few sectors
> shorter than the IBM drives. Tonight I'm gonna rebuild the whole array
> with slightly reduced sizes for the individual disks. If that doesn't
> work out, I'll post another call for help :)

Having at least one of the seagates in there when you rebuild should
reduce the size automatically.

Arno

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