Title: HP EVA Storage - Soft Diagnostics Failure Error

Cause: A soft diagnostics Error will typically be present after an intentional or unintentional restart of one or both
HSV controllers. It will be logged in the controller event log and displayed in command view Enterprise Virtual
Array (EVA) as yellow exclamation mark. The EVA will be operational. This error can be present on any EVA model.

Answer/Solution: When any HSV controller restarts it will go through the equivalent of a Power On Self Test
(POST). The POST will ensure that all required hardware is present and operational.

In case a non-essential part of the hardware fails diagnostics (e.g. one host port is not operational), the controller
will start up but be marked with a Soft diagnostics error.

A typical scenario would be a host port failure that triggered a controller restart and subsequently failed
diagnostics (because e.g. a bad cable). After the restart, the controller will report the soft diagnostics error.

A soft diagnostics error will only clear on the next successful POST (and, of course, if the problem is fixed at that
time). So a controller restart is required. As a re-synchronization bypasses the POST, it is insufficient to clear the
error.

Transient problems (e.g. a marginal switch link) can cause a soft diagnostics error on a host port while the host
port might have recovered on its own thus showing no physical problem. A simple reboot of the controller will
clear the condition.

As always, as a reboot takes one controller offline, present host I/O load needs to be taken into consideration
before restarting. In case both controllers display this error, they can be restarted one after the other once the
cause of the error is rectified.