HP Smart Array 641 SCSI RAID array configuration

[HaWe]

hi,
I purchased a HP Smart Array 641 SCSI RAID array for my 7 years old HP Proliant Server (OS: Windows 2000 Server) but it is not recognized during system boot.
Though the array has been recognized by Windows and the drivers have been installed correctly, the device and the 2 attached SCSI drives are not detected nevertheless during rebooting the system.

The screen always shows the message that I have to run the "HP Smart Array 641 array configuration utility" - but all I found on the HP website were
cp005779.exe
cp007096.exe
and both seem to do nothing.

Has anyone ideas how I can configure my SCSI controller?

[mightor]

Do you have to have some kind of termination on your bus or is auto-terminating? The array's BIOS does not show during the POST?

- Xander

[HaWe]

there is a bus terminator at the end of the cable (68 pins).
The SCSI HHDs have the IDs 3 and 4.
What do you mean by "The array's BIOS does not show during the POST?"
There is no message like "press F9 to enter BIOS configuration menu".

BTW:
I have another RAID array (fast ATA 100 onboard), here I may press F8 to enter the array BIOS, I have attached 2 ATA HDDs to it and all is working fine.

[mightor]

So you have two RAID arrays in this server? One shows a BIOS option during POST, the other does not? Did you try removing the card that -does- show the BIOS to see if the other shows when you do that?

- Xander

[HaWe]

yes, I have a onboard ATA array, it always was working fine (and still is). As it is on board (on the Proliant ML330 G3 main board), it is not removable.
I may configure 1 array by RAID 0,1,5,10, but now I have configured 2 ATA arrays, both by RAID 0, in order to have 2 independend HDDs (C: for OS, D: for data).

The SCSI array is "new" (bought at Ebay), it is recognized during boot (but not configurable), and it has been recognized by Windows ("new device detected" - driver installation automatically).

What I intend to do:
- use the ATA-array in future with 2 ATA HDDs by RAID 1 for the OS boot drive C:
- use the SCSI-array in future with 2 SCSI HDDs by RAID 1 for the data drive D:

[mightor]

I'm a bit confused. You were saying in the beginning that the new controller card was not recognised during system boot and now you say it -is- recognised at boot, which is it?

You may need to use a configuration utility from inside the OS itself in order to make a disk attached to this array bootable or visible. Check the HP website for additional information.

- Xander

[HaWe]

what I meant was:
there is a message that a new SCSI RAID array is recognized in a PCI-X slot, but with an error because it has not been configured or installed correctly so far, and that I have to run the "HP Smart Array 641 array configuration utility". So it has been recognized just "electrically or physically" as a device, but is not "operating active" or so.
On the HP website I didn't find a utility which is called exactly that way - except 2 tiny programs which actually do nothing if I start them under Windows.

[mightor]

Is this what you downloaded ?
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/Te ... bc4f1e5f1c

When you download it you can either extract or run it. I just extracted it to a new folder I created and it generated a whole bunch of files. Why not run it (not extract) and see what it does?

This looks like it may be what you need.

- Xander

[HaWe]

thank you Xander, it's really looking good. I will try it tomorrow in my business and will report!

[mightor]

You should consider getting a new server + OS, though. You'll find it hard to get replacement parts for your server and your OS hasn't been supported by MS since July 13 2010. That is a bit risky for a business system. Replacing your system when it breaks will result in serious downtime. It is better to do that before it breaks. Alternatively, run your server in a virtual environment, so that it can be moved off a broken server to a new one without too much trouble.

- Xander