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[SOLVED] Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

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coldstream

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:10 am

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Comp1962 wrote:

Welcome to the forums and I am sorry to hear about your issues with your server booting up. The blinking blue health light is an indication that your server is not booting up properly for some reason but because its headless its difficult to see what that reason actually is. As for the hard drive lights not comming on you should know they only come on after the server completely boots up.

Could you kindly provide the model of your server, any recent changes to the server that you may have done and a little history. Every little detail helps determine causes and helps others figure out corrective action. I realize your drives check out but something in the WHS is preventing your server from booting up properly. Often time performing a Server Recovery will restore your server and you will need to put in your user accounts and a few other things.

I do have some thoughts but right now I would prefer to know what model server you have as it will help provide the correct information to getting your server back up and running. For the moment the one thing I would suggest you do as a precaution is protect your data. If you have a copy of everything that was on your server then thats a good thing if not then I would make every attempt to move as much of the data off the drives as possible. You can install the drives into another computer and read them to copy the data. If you need help doing this just ask and I and others will be more then happy to guide you in this.

Remember protect your data first then lets figure out whats the best course for corrective action based on the information you provide.

Hi,
Thank you for replying to my post. I have the EX485 that originally came with the WD 750GB HD. I added another 750GB HD that is the exact same model about 1.5 year ago. Back around September/October I upgraded the WHS OS to the latest version at that time (version 2.5??). A few weeks later I happen to notice that the MSS was inaccessible after that. I have put off trying to figure out what is wrong with the MSS until now because there just wasn't enough information out there on what could be the problem and the solve.

I just ordered a new WD Green Caviar 1.5TB drive today. The 2nd 750GB drive I have is already backed up and ready to be used as the new system drive if needed. In the meantime, I will be backing up the original 750GB HD tonight when I get home.

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Comp1962

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:27 pm

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Great to hear your backing up your data this will come in handy if you should chose to perform a Factory Recovery which is of course a last resort. After you have completed backing up your data and have confirmed you can access it and that its fully in tact then you can do one of two things.

(1) You can put the drives back in your server and attempt a Server Recovery this will preserve your data and reinstall the WHS OS that was shipped with your server. You can also use your new drive as the system drive if you want and perform a Server Recovery if your data was set for duplication then your data would still be preserved.

(2) If you want to perform a fresh install and basically start over you can peform a factory recovery. You can use the original drives or you can use the new drive you ordered for the system drive.

Others may also suggest other things for you to review. Since you have gone this long without your server it might be best to wait a couple days more to see what others may suggest. If you chose one of the recovery options just remember to follow the instructions which will require you to remove the HP Console software from the computer your using.

Whatever you chose to do I wish you a smooth recovery process and hope to see you write back your server is fully functional again.

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Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

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JohnBick

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 2:39 pm

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Comp1962 wrote:

(2) If you want to perform a fresh install and basically start over you can peform a factory recovery. You can use the original drives or you can use the new drive you ordered for the system drive.

This is actually called a FACTORY RESET and will format ALL attached drives. Be sure to remove any USB or eSATA devices you do not want added to the storage pool.

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....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
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coldstream

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 10:51 am

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Looks like the OEM drive is faulty. Sometimes it works when connected as an external to another machine and sometimes it doesn't. I ordered a 2nd Green Caviar 1.5TB drive today. Will be using the 2nd 750GB as an extra and probably chuck the original OEM drive out. I have to wait until the 1.5TB drive arrives before I can do a clean rebuild using the Factory Reset process.

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Comp1962

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:31 pm

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coldstream wrote:

If I were you I would first try the Server Recovery Option using a new drive for your system drive. If all goes well your data will be there and you just have to configure the user accounts and a couple other things.

If you do the Factory Recovery the server will format your drives and it will be just like the first day your used your server. Which ever option you chose is in the end your choice because it is your server but when ever possible you should try to do the Server Recovery First unless of course you want to start off with a clean server.

Good Luck!

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fulg

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:27 am

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Once again I am posting here, so you know what that means - got the problem again! This time my only EADS drive wasn't even near the MSS or the TR4M, so as I suspected, that drive wasn't to blame.

What this means is that the freeze didn't occur while the TR4M was detecting the EADS drive, but while detecting one before it. I have two other 1TB EACS drives in the TR4M, so I'm thinking one of those is causing the bootup problems.

I will replace one (as if it had died) and see what happens next...

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HP EX470 w/PP3, 8.0TB (2x500GB, 5x1TB+1x2TB WD Green Drives, 2GB RAM), TR4M-B
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fulg

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 4:01 pm

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I removed one of my EACS drives and replaced it with my spare EADS, and everything is fine for now. It's too soon to know if the drive swap cured the problem, generally the server has to be up for a few weeks before a restart causes it to freeze again.

Just my luck, it seems the drive I replaced in the TR4M contained all the backups... After waiting many hours for the Backup Database Repair Wizard to finish, it proudly informed me that absolutely nothing survived. #-o

Oh well... At least duplication saved my data (nothing else was lost).

(Yes, I know about BDBB, I just didn't have a spare 1TB on hand to keep a backup of the backups

)

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Eidos

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:10 pm

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I am having the exact same problem. My unit is an EX470 with 3.5 TB and a Tr4m-b with 4 tb. The blue health light on the server starts flashing and the drive lights go out. I seems that the issue is something in the tr4m. I pulled all drives in the tr4m and checked them all with Seagate software and updated the firmware. They all tested good. So far I have lost 90 % of my data and have 60 hours invested. I cannot even get one good backup of my main computer before the server fails in the same mode and hangs up. If I turn off the tr4m and boot the server it comes on.

I am curious if you ever found a total solution to your problems.

My system now fails when it reaches 80 % back up on the main computer (large monster). I have just replaced drive 4 which is the boot drive in the tr4m to see if that is the issue. I am still trying to get a good backup of one computer and I have 8.

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Comp1962

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:25 pm

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When your backup fails what does the your server report as to the reason why the backup failed. Check your backup logs. Anytime a backup fails on my EX470 its not the server but the unit I am backing up causing the problem and I usually have to check the drives out on the unit that the backup failed on and usually there is something to resolve. Once thats done the backups generally occur without issue. This doesn't happen all that often but when it happens its usually attributed to the client not the server.

Good Luck in resolving your issue! :sanjuan:

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fulg

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:01 am

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Eidos wrote:

I am curious if you ever found a total solution to your problems.

It is still too early to call, but so far it the best explanation I have is that one of the drives in the TR4M was causing the freezes. It took a few weeks to identify which one it was (because none of the drives show signs of failure), but so far I haven't had the problem again.

Once the next round of updates comes up, I'll know for sure. I'll post something then.

That being said, never once have backups been a problem; I could always backup all my computers successfully. For me the freeze occurs after the MSS is automatically restarted by software (e.g. after an update), never during backups.

Eidos wrote:

I have just replaced drive 4 which is the boot drive in the tr4m to see if that is the issue.

I am curious to know why you call drive 4 of the TR4M the "boot drive", because it isn't. The boot drive (aka "system drive") is in the lower drive bay of the EX470 (the one with the key lock). All drives in the attached TR4M are data drives.

Do you have enough free space to run the MSS for a while without the TR4M attached? If so, does the problem still occur?

Otherwise, I guess I would diagnose this by removing a disk from the TR4M for a while (using the "remove drive" wizard), and see if the problem is solved. If not, add back the one you took out, and try again removing another TR4M disk. As long as you change just one thing at a time (and are very patient!), you should be able to isolate the problem.

Also, I second Comp1962's advice; backup problems are usually caused by something funky on the client PC, not by the server.

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Eidos

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 11:21 am

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I called drive four the boot drive because that's what it is for the tr4m. I seems to be that this drive flashes first in startup mode ( to spin up) and then all of the other drives flash. At that point the server continues to boot and finally come on. I believe the tr4m has a sequential boot system to avoid over power comsumption in the unit during startups. Each time the units fails it is as if drive 4 fails to respond. I ran full diagnostics on it and it checks fine.

Last night I removed it and replaced it with a new drive. I started a backup on the monster computer and I am now 760 GB further into a backup than I have been before. It appears that this may have solved my issue but I will not be happy until all computers are backed up.

It seems that when the TR4m hangs up on this first drive it causes the sever to lose server connection, flash the blue health light and turn off other drive lights like it was trying to reboot but did not complete the process. (possibly becasue drive 4 is not responding) If I turn off the server and the tr4M, most times it will come on as if nothing happened. During a backup after the server gathers data on which clusters have changed on a large drive it seems that drive four went to sleep or failed.

I have reviewed the error codes several times but really gathered no real posisble solution. This is why I am convinced that the problem is in the tr4m with a problematic drive. If I achieve total backup I will let you know. I have my fingers crossed.

I wish there was an easier way to find a failing drive.

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Eidos

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:17 am

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I replaced the drive 0 in the tr4m and started a backup. I just finished a 4 TB backup with success. The original drive in the unit tests good but as I mentioned it seems to go asleep after some period of time.

I had determined that the flashing blue server lights was caused by an incomplete reboot which was started as a result of the tr4m not responding. When the server was rebooting and it found a drive not responding, it simply stopped and sat there with the blinking health light and none of the blue server drive lights on because it did not complete the boot process. Turning off the tr4m and server and then turning on the tr4m and then the server "sometimes" allowed for a healthy reboot. If I left the tr4m off, the server would boot which was helpful to indicate that the issue was in the TR4m.

During a backup it appears like the process stalled because the Drive 0 in the tr4m failed to respond after it had worked for hours. The new drive solved the problem. Finding an intermittent drive problem when you have 8 drives in the server is not easy. So far it took 7 days of almost continuous monitoring and backing up the server waiting for the failure to happen. Watching the disk management ADD-in software to see which drive was active when the failure occured was the only way to identify which external drive caused the problem.

I thought this information may help someone else.

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JohnBick

JohnBick

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:06 am

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Nice summary... On behalf of future readers, THANKS!

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....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
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Eidos

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 1:32 pm

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Just another note, I loaded Seatools from Seagate and performed their suggested short term generic drive test. The drive in question passed. I also did a CHKDSK /f on it and it passed. I formated it and it formated OK. Puzzled becasue I knew the drive did not work reliably I performed a long term generic drive test and the drive failed in less than 3 minutes in a 4 hour possible test. Apparrently the drive developed bad sectors in less than 9 months of use. I returned it to Seagate today. This is drive number four to fail from Seagate in 3 months.

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fulg

Post subject: Re: Flashing blue health light, cannot boot

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 7:19 pm

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Eidos wrote:

Finding an intermittent drive problem when you have 8 drives in the server is not easy. So far it took 7 days of almost continuous monitoring and backing up the server waiting for the failure to happen

Thanks for the writeup. You're lucky to have found an easy repro, I've been at it for two months and haven't yet completely isolated the cause of the problem! :cry:

I think the problem is magnified due to the SATA chipset driver in the EX470 not dealing with failing eSATA drives correctly. If a drive in an enclosure is causing a problem, the driver seems to wait indefinitely on bootup for that drive to come online... Sadly no driver updates are available.

I will look into more advanced diagnostic tools from WD, as I do have one possible suspect drive...

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