[AccessD] How to troubleshoot a blue screen

Jim,

 > I tend to prefer hard down equipment to flaky equipment as problems are easier to resolve.

Yes it is good.  This drive was one of 4 in a "software" Raid 0 array on a low end controller.  It 
is interesting to me that the drive flaking out did not cause the controller to degrade gracefully, 
i.e. notify me of a drive failing.  However given that it is Raid 0 ...  This is my only experience 
with Raid 0 so I haven't a clue what would happen on a high end controller.

However it was feeding data to SQL Server, i.e. the SSD had "read mostly" databases on it.

In any event, yes, I had backups and just have to do restores of the databases that were out on that 
array.  I am already mostly back up and running.  I have a single database I had just finished 
merging (last night) which was not backed up (in the merged state) so I have to re-merge that 
database.  Little stuff like that.

 >Will the problems cost much to fix and can everything run in the interim?

None of the missing DBs runs until the backups are restored.  6 of 8 are restored, though of course 
to my raid 6 rotating media database location, not to the SSD Array which is down until further notice.

I really need to somehow do an analysis of whether the SSD helps much.  I started with SSDs back 
when I had 32 gigs of very expensive main memory.  I now have 64 gigs and will probably max out the 
machine (128g) next month.  With all of that memory, and with my databases all compressed, is the 
SSD still critical to my operation?

The SSDs I bought 2 years ago were 2nd generation consumer grade - 120 gb SATA 3g 40K ops/sec.  3rd 
generation have arrived - Sata6G 90k Ops / sec. along with controllers to match.  I have added two 
new databases to the mix, each of which contain more records than all of my previous databases put 
together.  I may not be able to get it all in memory any more.

Decisions, decisions.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting

Reality is what refuses to go away
when you do not believe in it


On 6/18/2012 12:40 PM, Jim Lawrence wrote:
> That's good news John.
>
> I tend to prefer hard down equipment to flaky equipment as problems are
> easier to resolve. Will the problems cost much to fix and can everything run
> in the interim?
>
> Jim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
> Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 6:53 AM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] How to troubleshoot a blue screen
>
> Well, I got a blue screen today and when I went downstairs to look at the
> server, an SSD had failed.
>    I could not even detect it nor get past the bios where it was trying to
> detect SATA ports.  This
> box is stuffed with drives so I started with the SSDs (the most likely
> culprit) disconnecting all 4
> (I could now boot) and then one at a time until I found the one drive.
>
> John W. Colby
> Colby Consulting
>
> Reality is what refuses to go away
> when you do not believe in it