Neither of these alternative fault-tolerance methods supports online spares or automatic data recovery, nor do they support auto-reliability monitoring or interim data recovery.

If you decide to use one of these alternative methods, configure your arrays with RAID 0 for maximum storage capacity and refer to your operating system documentation for further implementation details.

Diagnosing array problems

Diagnostic tools

To troubleshoot array problems and generate feedback about arrays, use the following diagnostic tools:

•Event Notification Service

This utility reports array events to the Microsoft® Windows® system event log and IML. You can obtain the utility from the SmartStart CD or the HP website (http://www.hp.com/support). When prompted for product information, enter the server model name.

•HP Insight Diagnostics

HP Insight Diagnostics is a tool that displays information about the system hardware configuration and performs tests on the system and its components, including drives if they are connected to Smart Array controllers. This utility is available on the SmartStart CD and also on the HP website (http://www.hp.com/servers/diags).

•POST messages

Smart Array controllers produce diagnostic error messages (POST messages) at reboot. Many POST messages suggest corrective actions. For more information about POST messages, see the HP ProLiant Servers Troubleshooting Guide.

•HP Smart Storage Administrator

For more recent products, array diagnostics is available with HP SSA v9.0 and later. This utility is available through HP Intelligent Provisioning on HP ProLiant Gen8 and later servers, and also on the HP website (http://www.hp.com/support). For more information about HP SSA, see "About HP SSA (on page 5)." For more information about error messages, see the HP ProLiant Servers Troubleshooting Guide.

•HP Smart Storage Administrator Diagnostics Utility CLI

This standalone diagnostic utility provides configuration and error information about array controllers, storage enclosures, drive cages, logical drives, physical drives, and tape drives. For any supported SSDs, the utility provides current usage level and remaining expected lifetime. For more information, see "HP Smart Storage Administrator Diagnostics Utility CLI (on page 112)."

Troubleshooting resources

HP ProLiant G7 (and earlier) products

The HP ProLiant Servers Troubleshooting Guide provides procedures for resolving common problems and comprehensive courses of action for fault isolation and identification, error message interpretation, issue resolution, and software maintenance on ProLiant servers and server blades. This guide includes problem-specific flowcharts to help you navigate complex troubleshooting processes. To view the guide, select a language:

•English (http://www.hp.com/support/ProLiant_TSG_en)

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