dp264 disk or raid problem

[Mark Hansel <hansel hansel mnstate edu>]

The machine crashed with no relevant log entries and came up with a failed
file system check. The failure occured on a large raid partition. fsck
produced endless errors (after 1 hour, I decided to remake the file system
and restore from backup). I think these are the most important efforts:

	mke2fs with bad block check: no bad blocks, short write near end 
	of fs (18 blocks from the end).

	power up disks individually to detect a bad disk (crunches or 
	vibrations). Nothing abnormal sounding or feeling.

	install new cable / terminator. Same symptoms.

	make the partition returning errors shorter. Result is a short
	write, again near the end (not recorded, so I'm not sure it was 18 
	blocks this time). Tried successively smaller partitions 3 times
	with the same results.

	zero the partition (dd) and try making the file system, with
	bad block checks. Same result.

The RAID controller is an ICP-VORTEX (gdth driver), configured as raid 5,
128MB memory. (The system disk is on a separate -non-raid scsi
controller.)

While I'm no hardware expert, I'm no novice (I also had a more
knowledgible advanced student -- assistant to out systems administrator--
looking over my shoulder and making suggestions). I think I've eliminated
cabling and termination issues. I can mount and list the contents of
smaller partititons on the raid array and the disks make no strange
noises, thus I think the drives are physically OK.  This begins to look
to me like a controller failure.

Is there a definitive test for the raid controller? Should I look 
elsewhere?

Thank you.

-- 
Mark Hansel
PO Box 41
Minnesota State University Moorhead
Moorhead, MN 56563
ph: 218-236-2039 fax: 218-236-2593
hansel@mnstate.edu
http://wwwcj.mnstate.edu