From: dfilip@colornet.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: NO MORE HAIR TO LOOSE - HELP!
Keywords: disk error
Date: 7 Nov 92 19:39:43 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: ColorNet Information Systems

Crista Allen writes :
>What about the Read/Write board?  Last week, I had major problems.  These
>disks are RA81's. We kept loosing connection to the quorum disk.  Bell Atlantic 
>came in and said it was the HDA going out. (This has just been replaced 8 months
>ago)  When I tried to do an HSC backup, it kept dying.  It was coming back
>with error reading the disk and other errors.  They changed the read/write
>board which then allowed me to do the backup.  Couldn't this have been the
>problem with loosing connection to the quorum disk error???  They went ahead
>and put in another HDA, but that seems kind of silly if it was the R/W board.

Yes, a bad R/W board would have caused your the quorum disk to loose connection
and since I think you are stating that the backup errors went away when the R/W
board was replaced then that was definitely your problem.

If I were you, I would have demanded to keep the HDA, run non-destructive
diags, and if the disk looked OK, chased the FE out of the computer room !

We have all DEC maintenance, but we have a running joke about how no matter what
the problem is, DEC will first replace the HDA, and if the problem persists,
then try to figure out what it might be. And you can go through a lot of HDA's
when you have a bad memory board ! :-) :-) :-)

(one of our offices in the south-west had their HDA replaced (3400) almost
every month for disk errors until we finally convinced DEC to swap the ISE
(kept using the same old ISE with new HDA's); one of the jokes there is that
DEC considered swapping the HDA as part of preventive maintenance ! Geez,
what ever happened to the good'ol days of simply replacing the filters ! :-)

Although I have never worked for DEC and have never been trained by DEC,
I can make some sense out of ANAL/ERR and VAXSIM reports, and have been
doing it long enough that I have a fairly good idea what is most likely the
problem when disk errors are reported; a bunch of revectored blocks in the
same range, or all on the same head within a short period of time usually
means that your HDA is starting to lunch, and you should write-protect it
and back it up ASAP until DEC can get in. On the other hand, things like
SDI command timeouts usually point to the controller/cabling/drive
electronics (ISE) and there is a good chance it is NOT the HDA. Unfortunatly,
DEC always wants to try replacing the HDA first, and we sometimes have to
convince them to try replacing something else FIRST.

One time I actually did come very close to throwing a DEC FE out when he
wanted to replace the HDA. When I told him that to me the errors did NOT
point to an HDA, and that I had spoken with Colorado and they also felt
that it was probably not the HDA, he replied that "Well Colorado said that
it might not be the HDA, but then again it might, so I decided to bring
along an HDA to be sure. I'll put the HDA in, and if that dosn't take care
of the problem, I'll try replacing the R/W board." (paraphrased) I was
very insistant that he CHANGE THE ORDER of his swaps, and STRONGLY
INSISTED that if he DISAGREE that he call Colorado himself.

It turned out to be the R/W board.

(thank you .... I am now getting off my soap box ... I feel better now :-)

Regards,

Dave.
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=   David E. Filip                UUCP   : dfilip@colornet.com              =
=   ColorNet Information Systems  CIS    : 76430,3111                       =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=     Standards are wonderful 'cause there are so many to choose from !     =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=