On our IBM DS3500 SAN we started seeing VDD errors and repairs. This was coupled with a drive returning a Check Condition and a destination drive error. After speaking with vendor support these problems are caused by the controller reading data off the hard drive which fails checksum. The array will automatically recover. While these can be transient in nature it can also preface a failing drive, especially when you see a drive error with it.
To be on the safe side we replaced the drive. When replacing the drive it's recommended to unassign an global hot spares until the new drive is inserted and the rebuild starts. If you have hot spares assigned when you fail the drive the array will immediately start rebuilding onto the hot spare.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Problems with Exchange 2010 Update Rollup 4 and 5
Currently you shouldn't install any Exchange 2010 Update Rollup past UR3.
Update Rollup 4 and 4v.2 both break content indexing.
Update Rollup 5 broke DAGs and Microsoft has since stopped offering it for download.
These issues are supposed to be fixed in the upcoming Update Rollup 6, but we'll have to wait and see. Considering the obvious lack of QA testing Microsoft did on UR4, 4v.2, and 5 I'm going to hold off installing UR6 when it comes out to make sure it doesn't come with a bug as well.
Update Rollup 4 and 4v.2 both break content indexing.
Update Rollup 5 broke DAGs and Microsoft has since stopped offering it for download.
These issues are supposed to be fixed in the upcoming Update Rollup 6, but we'll have to wait and see. Considering the obvious lack of QA testing Microsoft did on UR4, 4v.2, and 5 I'm going to hold off installing UR6 when it comes out to make sure it doesn't come with a bug as well.
Sonicwall appliance not filtering spam
The Sonicwall Email Security spam filtering appliance is a great product. I've thoroughly enjoyed having one. However, with the 7.4.1 firmware they introduced a MySQL backend which holds thumbprints (spam signatures) and report information. Under certain circumstances (like powering off the appliance during a thumbprint update) can corrupt the database. With a corrupt database the appliance will continue to filter spam, but at a reduced efficiency (we saw it drop from about 95% to about 70%). The reports will also not work or work intermittently.
If you log into your appliance and you see the Good/Junk and Spam Breakdown charts reading zero, suspect a corrupt database. You can check it by going to System > Advanced and clicking the Check Connectivity button. You can also check your thumbprints by logging into the appliance and then going to http://<appliance>/diag.html and selecting Thumbprint info.
A corrupt database is not an end user fixable problem. Contact Sonicwall to have them repair. If your appliance is behind a firewall, then you'll need to temporarily open port 22 to give them access to the appliance.
UPDATE: If your database keeps getting corrupted you're probably looking at hardware failure, at which point you should contact Sonicwall support to have a new unit shipped to you.
If you log into your appliance and you see the Good/Junk and Spam Breakdown charts reading zero, suspect a corrupt database. You can check it by going to System > Advanced and clicking the Check Connectivity button. You can also check your thumbprints by logging into the appliance and then going to http://<appliance>/diag.html and selecting Thumbprint info.
A corrupt database is not an end user fixable problem. Contact Sonicwall to have them repair. If your appliance is behind a firewall, then you'll need to temporarily open port 22 to give them access to the appliance.
UPDATE: If your database keeps getting corrupted you're probably looking at hardware failure, at which point you should contact Sonicwall support to have a new unit shipped to you.
Forwarded emails in Exchange 2010 don't show email address
If you have an version of Exchange prior to 2010 and have a rule set up in an email account to forward all incoming emails, when you migrate to Exchange 2010 the emails will still be forwarded, but they won't show the email address they're from. This is a know issue and is not one Microsoft plans to fix. There are a couple workarounds though:
- Delete the account, recreate the account, and recreate the rule.
- Change it from forwarding to redirecting or forwarding as an attachment.
- If it's forwarding to only one person, you can set forwarding in the account properties.
- Delete the account, recreate the account, and recreate the rule.
- Change it from forwarding to redirecting or forwarding as an attachment.
- If it's forwarding to only one person, you can set forwarding in the account properties.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Dell PERC S300 RAID not rebuilding
First, let me say the PERC S300 isn't a good RAID controller. It gives you the capacity for RAID 0, 1, and 5, but the processing is done by the operating system so they're not true hardware RAID controllers. They also don't provide write back support which can a big performance impact depending on your application.
If one of the drives fails on a PERC S300 RAID controller and you replace it with a new drive (the S300 supports hot swap) the controller may not automatically start rebuilding the array onto the new drive. Open your Server Administrator console and first check to make sure the new drive shows up under the "Physical Disks" listing. If it does then check the "Virtual Disks" listing and see if you suddenly have a new virtual disk the same capacity as the replacement drive. If you do, go ahead and verify it only contains the replacement drive, and then go ahead and delete it. Once it's deleted go back to "Physical Disks" and set the replacement drive to "Global Hot Spare". Once applied the controller should start rebuilding the affected arrays onto the new drive. Go back to "Virtual Disks" to check the progress.
If one of the drives fails on a PERC S300 RAID controller and you replace it with a new drive (the S300 supports hot swap) the controller may not automatically start rebuilding the array onto the new drive. Open your Server Administrator console and first check to make sure the new drive shows up under the "Physical Disks" listing. If it does then check the "Virtual Disks" listing and see if you suddenly have a new virtual disk the same capacity as the replacement drive. If you do, go ahead and verify it only contains the replacement drive, and then go ahead and delete it. Once it's deleted go back to "Physical Disks" and set the replacement drive to "Global Hot Spare". Once applied the controller should start rebuilding the affected arrays onto the new drive. Go back to "Virtual Disks" to check the progress.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)