HP DL180G6 RAID controller issue with WD harddisks

We ran into this problem with two new DL180 G6 servers combined with Western Digital (WD) 750GB SATA drives. The description matches everything in this thread on the HP ITRC forums:

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447626+1249041708681+28353475&threadId=1357085

-tried different mediums (centos,redhat)

-same behavior with different RAIDs (tried 1 and RAID 5)

-yes, I also used the smart array linux driver disk

-tried graphical and linux text mode

It fails always at “formatting filesystem”. The only difference I’ve seen, is that it stops around 11% with 2 disks in RAID1. With RAID 5 it fails around 98%.

We have seen this behaviour with regular W2003 installations as well. Further on in this thread there is someone with the solution:

Hi there,

I have found the problem!

The problem is the Western Digital drive. We have received 2 hdd types. 1 Seagate and 1 WD. I created a RAID 0 volume with only the Seagate drive and the OS install fine. When I create a RAID 0 or RAID 0 + 1 with the WD drive the OS install was freezing when it try to format the drive.

I think it is an issue between the Smart Array 212 and the WD drive. I have installed the latest firmware of the Smart Array and of the WD drive but it doesn’t fix this problem.

I have opened a case at HP support and I hope that the HDD will be replaced with a Seagate or a soon firmware update for the 212 or / and the WD drive

We have put this information in our own support call with HP as it seems that is not yet known throughout the service organization.

Update 10/8: Problem seems to be fixed with new firmware for the controller and backplane. Make sure you get it or ask for it with HP.

VMware View errors while destroying VM’s

Today I ran into two specific errors while destroying virtual machines from a pool (the pool was being downsized). Both were at the “Initiating OS Shutdown phase”.

1. VMware Tools is not running in this Virtual Machine
2. Cannot execute scripts

Both errors occurred while resuming the virtual machine from suspend (the desktops have the setting “Suspend when not in use”). It seems like the OS Shutdown commands are executed while the VM is still resuming from suspend and the necessary services are not up and running yet. It is not a big problem because vCenter Server just keeps trying to shutdown and power off and because I am destroying the VM’s anyway I am not really interested in having a clean shutdown.