Adaptec RAID 5 endless build cycle

[athlon1.2]

A few days ago I resurrected an old(er) server with a Tyan S2881 board and dual Opteron CPUs. An Adaptec SA2410 card is installed in the 1st PCI-X slot and the 2nd slot is disabled.

I setup a RAID 5 array with 4x 250GB drives and the array built with no problems. I then checked on the status of the build earlier today and it was at 74% (even though I could have sworn it had already built). I then checked again right now and it is at 22%:

~ # /usr/StorMan/arcconf GETSTATUS 1
Controllers found: 1

Logical device Task:
Logical device : 1
Current operation : Build/Verify
Status : In Progress
Percentage complete : 22


Command completed successfully.
~ # /usr/StorMan/arcconf GETCONFIG 1
Controllers found: 1

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Controller information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Controller Status : Optimal
Channel description : SATA
Controller Model : Adaptec 2410SA
Controller Serial Number : BE60FC
Physical Slot : 1
Installed memory : 64 MB
Copyback : Disabled
Background consistency check : Enabled
Defunct disk drive count : 0
Logical devices/Failed/Degraded : 1/0/0
---------------------------------------------------
Controller Version Information
---------------------------------------------------
BIOS : 4.2-0 (8209)
Firmware : 4.2-0 (8209)
Driver : 1.1-5 (2456)
Boot Flash : 0.0-0 (0)
---------------------------------------------------
Controller Battery Information
---------------------------------------------------
Status : Not Installed

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device number 1
Logical device name : RAID
RAID level : 5
Status of logical device : Optimal
Size : 715251 MB
Read-cache mode : Enabled
Write-cache mode : Enabled (write-back)
Write-cache setting : Enabled (write-back)
Partitioned : Yes
Number of chunks : 4
Stripe-unit size : 256 KB
Stripe order (Channel,Device) : 0,0 0,1 0,2 0,3
Bad stripes : No

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Physical Device information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Channel #0:
Transfer Speed : SATA 1.5 Gb/s
Device #0
Device is a Hard drive
State : Online
Supported : Yes
Transfer Speed : SATA 1.5 Gb/s
Reported Channel,Device : 0,0
Vendor : WDC
Model : WD2500SD-01KCC0
Firmware : 08.0
Size : 238475 MB
Write Cache : Enabled (write-back)
FRU : None
S.M.A.R.T. : No
Device #1
Device is a Hard drive
State : Online
Supported : Yes
Transfer Speed : SATA 1.5 Gb/s
Reported Channel,Device : 0,1
Vendor : WDC
Model : WD2500KS-00MJB0
Firmware : 02.0
Size : 238474 MB
Write Cache : Enabled (write-back)
FRU : None
S.M.A.R.T. : No
Device #2
Device is a Hard drive
State : Online
Supported : Yes
Transfer Speed : SATA 1.5 Gb/s
Reported Channel,Device : 0,2
Vendor : WDC
Model : WD2500KS-00MJB0
Firmware : 02.0
Size : 238474 MB
Write Cache : Enabled (write-back)
FRU : None
S.M.A.R.T. : No
Device #3
Device is a Hard drive
State : Online
Supported : Yes
Transfer Speed : SATA 1.5 Gb/s
Reported Channel,Device : 0,3
Vendor : WDC
Model : WD2500AAKS-00F0A
Firmware : 12.0
Size : 238475 MB
Write Cache : Enabled (write-back)
FRU : None
S.M.A.R.T. : No


Command completed successfully.


~# hdparm -t /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 92 MB in 3.03 seconds = 30.32 MB/sec

~ # hdparm -t /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 96 MB in 3.00 seconds = 31.97 MB/sec

~ # hdparm -T /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 1678 MB in 2.00 seconds = 839.07 MB/sec

Does this seem normal? I've used these cards and also Dell CERC (which seem the same except they have 6 ports) before but only for RAID-1.

(Yes I know there are 3 different types of drive in there, 3 with 16MB cache and 1 with 8MB cache)

/edit: A server running a RAID-1 (for a long time already) shows this:

pbxserver:~ # /usr/StorMan/arcconf GETSTATUS 1
Controllers found: 1

Current operation : None

Command completed successfully.