PD hints - Disk disappearance


Disk disappearance

In Microsoft Windows 2003 and Windows 2000 operating systems, volumes on new disks are not automatically mounted and assigned drive letters by default when added to the system (see note 2 and 3 for exceptions). As a result, when a disk is no longer accessible due to a malfunction (for example a bad cable), the Windows operating system will treat this as a Removable Disk event. Figure 1 shows the event posted when Windows no longer detects a disk.  This can be caused by a failure in the enclosure unit or a mis-configuration of the storage. Using the ServeRAID Manager, ensure that the device (logical drive) is still available to this initiator.  Open the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator GUI and verify that the targets and sessions are active.

Notes:

1) The SW initiator does not support dynamic disks.

2) The Microsoft iSCSI Initiator service supports the concept of persistent targets. This means that initiators always reconnect to a target whenever the computer is rebooted. In this way the devices on the target should always be connected to the computer at all times.

3) If you encounter a situation where your computer takes a long time to display the login prompt after booting or takes a long time to login after entering your login credentials, then there may be an issue related to the Microsoft iSCSI initiator service starting. Check the system eventlog to see if there is an event “Timeout waiting for iSCSI persistently bound volumes…”. If this is the case then one or more of the persistently bound volumes did not reappear after reboot which could be due to network or target error.

4) The Windows event viewer logs an error when a disk disappears. The error identifies the target information.  Jot down the target info to assist you in determining the failing target. See Figures  2 and 3.

 

Figure 1 W2003 – Disk drive disappeared event

 

Connection Loss

If the connection to the DS300 enclosure has been lost, events will be posted in the Windows Event Viewer. This indicates that some component has failed in the network (cable, switch, NIC etc.) and that the host can no longer communicate with the enclosure. See Figure 2 and 3. Windows will attempt to reconnect and re-establish an iSCSI session with the DS300 controller.  See Figure 4.

Figure 2 W2003 – Connection Loss to target portal (DS300 port)

Figure 3 W2003 – Connection Loss to target

Figure 4 W2003 – Reconnection

 

Back to the top