Patent ID: 7496784

Claim:
A method of thresholding hardware errors in a storage system, wherein said storage system comprising multiple host adapter cards, wherein said multiple host adapter cards connect to a storage control unit; said method comprising the steps of: receiving a string of bits on a longitudinal track; generating a parity bit from said string of bits on said longitudinal track, to form a longitudinal-redundancy check; wherein said multiple host adapter cards are configured in a cluster; in case of a problem with said storage system: (a) raising a first flag in a header for said longitudinal-redundancy check; (b) fencing off a first card corresponding to said first flag among said multiple host adapter cards for a first job; (c) reissuing said first job to a second card among said multiple host adapter cards; and (d) marking all of said multiple host adapter cards other than said first card with a marker, so that all of said said multiple host adapter cards other than said first card are not allowed to be fenced off; in case of a new adapter card is put in service, starting an initial microcode load operation, and checking to see if said marker is set; limiting an error recovery, after a predetermined number of error hits occurs; and preventing an error recovery after a predetermined number of error hits occurs based on longitudinal redundancy checks within a predetermined period of time.