"Parity Initialization Status: In Progress" for long time

Two weeks ago I installed 6 new hard disks (HP 500GB 6G 7.2K SFF 2.5-inch 2-ports SAS DualPort Midline, 507610-B21) in a "HP DL 380 G5" with a "Smart Array P400" (RAM Firmware Revision 2.08, ROM Firmware Revision 2.08).

I created a new logical disk with 5 physical disk in RAID 5 and a spare drive (array B):

[...] => ctrl all show config

Smart Array P400 in Slot 1 (sn: P61620D9SUKHBP)

array A (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)

  logicaldrive 1 (136.7 GB, RAID 1, OK)

  physicaldrive 2I:1:1 (port 2I:box 1:bay 1, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
  physicaldrive 2I:1:2 (port 2I:box 1:bay 2, SAS, 146 GB, OK)

array B (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB)

  logicaldrive 2 (1.8 TB, RAID 5, OK)

  physicaldrive 1I:1:5 (port 1I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
  physicaldrive 1I:1:6 (port 1I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
  physicaldrive 1I:1:7 (port 1I:box 1:bay 7, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
  physicaldrive 2I:1:3 (port 2I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
  physicaldrive 2I:1:4 (port 2I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
  physicaldrive 1I:1:8 (port 1I:box 1:bay 8, SAS, 500 GB, OK, spare)

[...]

After that I could create the filesystem on It, mount It and use It without any issue.

My problem is that One week later the controller still was initializing parity.

[...] Array: B Interface Type: SAS Unused Space: 0 MB Status: OK

  Logical Drive: 2
     Size: 1.8 TB
     Fault Tolerance: RAID 5
     Heads: 255
     Sectors Per Track: 32
     Cylinders: 65535
     Stripe Size: 64 KB
     Status: OK
     Array Accelerator: Enabled
     Parity Initialization Status: In Progress
     Unique Identifier: 600508B10010443953554B484250000C
     Disk Name: /dev/cciss/c0d1
     Mount Points: /buzonesdir 1.8 TB
     OS Status: LOCKED
     Logical Drive Label: A0C36F2EP61620D9SUKHBPA42A

[...]

At that moment, trying to speed up the parity initialization, I increased the rebuild and expand priority from "medium" to "high".

But, one week later (working with high priority) the "Parity Initialization Status" is still "In Progress".

Do you know if this is normal and I should let It continue working?
Do you know any way to check if really "Parity initialization" is being done and how long It will last?

Thank you very much.

Solution 1:

The rebuild/expand priority setting doesn't affect parity initialization.

Be aware that parity initialization only occurs when the controller is not busy. If you are actively using the controller, it will not be making much progress towards completing initialization. To make initialization complete as fast as possible, allow the system to sit idle until initialization completes.

You may also have some success by changing the "Surface Scan Analysis Priority" to "High". If this setting is set to "Delay", then the controller will have to be idle for the specified number of seconds before it resumes a surface scan or parity initialization operation. Setting this to "High" should force the controller to make some sort of progress even if it is busy. After initialization completes, though, you'll probably want to reset this back to whatever value it started with.

Solution 2:

Firmware first!

The controller you have is older, but there have been a multitude of changes to the controller firmware since the version you're running on. You're at ROM revision 2.08. The current firmware for the Smart Array P400/P400i is version 7.22. Also see this HP advisory indicating the same.

Look through the change log for the controller, there are many issues/bugs addressed in updates.

You could install firmware piecemeal or just run a current HP Firmware DVD to bring the entire system, including disks, up-to-date.

Other notes...

• The 500GB nearline SAS disks you're using were released well after this controller was introduced. You may run into interoperability issues until you upgrade the controller firmware.
• RAID 5 isn't really recommended anymore. The performance will be poor on the disks you've spec'd, unless it's a pure sequential workload.
• Please obtain a battery-backed cache (BBWC) unit for the controller. Performance on HP Smart Array controllers is unacceptable without them.

Also see: Slow parity initialization of RAID-5 array on HP Smart Array P411 controller