[SOLVED] SATA disk errors

[Tony van der Hoff <tony@vanderhoff.org>]

On 31/12/11 16:59, Tony van der Hoff wrote:
> On 30/12/11 17:15, Camaleón wrote:
> > On Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:37:53 +0000, Tony van der Hoff wrote:
> >
> > > I'm getting irrregular reports on a Squeeze software raid1 array with
> > > two 500GB disks like this:
> > >
> > > Dec 30 09:53:39 tony-lx kernel: [143496.872684] ata3.00: exception
> > > Emask 0x10 SAct 0x3 SErr 0x400000 action 0x6 frozen
> > > Dec 30 09:53:39 tony-lx kernel: [143496.872694] ata3.00: irq_stat
> > > 0x08000000, interface fatal error
> > > Dec 30 09:53:39 tony-lx kernel: [143496.872703] ata3: SError: {
> > > Handshk }
> > > Dec 30 09:53:39 tony-lx kernel: [143496.872710] ata3.00: failed
> > > command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
> > > Dec 30 09:53:39 tony-lx kernel: [143496.872725] ata3.00: cmd
> > > 61/60:00:80:d0:56/00:00:13:00:00/40 tag 0 ncq 49152 out
> > > Dec 30 09:53:39 tony-lx kernel: [143496.872729] res
> > > 40/00:08:20:9b:5a/00:00:13:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
> > > Dec 30 09:53:39 tony-lx kernel: [143496.872736] ata3.00: status: {
> > > DRDY }
> >
> > (...)
> >
> > Despite the avobe errors, is the RAID1 array going offline?
> >
> > > Can anyone please enlighten me to what it means; Am I about to lose a
> > > disk?
> >
> > It seems to be localized in just one of the disks (the one connected to
> > the third sata port). Hard to tell what's going wrong (software
> > bug/error,
> > hardware error?), but I would start by replacing the sata cables for
> > both disks, just in case. I've found many weird issues with poorly
> > designed/bad quality sata cables that come bundled within motherboard
> > pack.
> Thanks Cameleón, I'll give that a try when I next reboot the server.

Well, the new cables finally arrived.

It turns out that my CD drive was attached to ata3, helpfully labled as 
SATA4 on the motherboard. I had indeed fitted a sub-standard cable to 
that, with the attitude "it's only a CD". Mistake.

I replaced that cable, and have not seen any errors for a number of 
days, so I'll declare that problem fixed.

Surprised, though, that the connection to the CD drive (which is hardly 
ever used) would cause such a rash of errors.

Thanks to all.

Cheers, Tony


--
Tony van der Hoff        | mailto:tony@vanderhoff.org
Buckinghamshire, England |