Is my RAID working?

Hi,

Firstly, iDRAC cannot monitor nor do RAID configuration. It can only monitor all hardware, RAID isn't hardware but is a configuration. If you need to monitor RAID, you will need OMSA, OpenManage Server Administrator.

Basically my question is, is the RAID working and mirroring my data? I'm not going to lie, this is one of my first go's with RAID.

You mentioned you have gone through Ctrl-R S140 configuration and had a look at the RAID configuration right? It should be working, if it doesn't, you will not be able to access your data.

Is it enough to see that the virtual drives have two connected physical drives in RAID 1?

I'm unsure what you mean by this, but I'm assuming you're asking how do you find out if the drives are in the configuration? You can refer to S140 user guide here: https://dell.to/3TaH7w9

Is there a utility I can use which shows me the physical data on both of my drives?

No, there isn't. 

If one drive were to fail, where does this information show? Does the controller push out the information somehow? Can I set up an e-mail notification when a drive fails?

You will need iDRAC email alert setup or OMSA email alert set up. You can search for user guide of both. Drive failure can be shown via OMSA. 

@DELL-Joey C​ Thank you so much for your swift and concise response!

My iDRAC9 config currently shows the following for physical and virtual disks:

The following details are from my iDRAC settings:

Could you shed any light on why it is having issues seeing the drives? I've restarted the server and re-set iDRAC. Still not reading the drives. I will however also take a look at OMSA.

I have seen the following update is available for the server. Would this be advisable? (I'm on version 5.10.0.0001) :

This is what my PERC S140 BIOS setting shows:

This is what I meant by is this showing that the RAID has been correctly configured and is operational?

Many thanks again.

Hi, why do you have two VDs, I'm not sure. I can recommend deleting them and creating from scratch a new VD if you do have not any data in them. Please follow up these steps:

1.Virtual disk management

Follow these steps to view the properties of physical disks:

1. Power the system on and press <Ctrl><R> when prompted, to access the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.
    
2. At the Main Menu field, select View Disk Details. Press <Enter>.
    
3. Use the arrow keys to choose a physical disk.
    
4. Physical disk information is displayed at the top of the window:
   Physical disk number
   Channel number
   Physical disk size
   Physical disk status: New/NonRAID/Ready/Online
   Amount of free space
   Manufacturer and model number
    
5. Press <Esc> to return to the main window when finished.

Follow these steps to view the properties of virtual disks:

1. Power the system on and press <Ctrl><R> when prompted, to access the PERC Virtual Disk Management utility.
    
2. At the Main Menu field, select View Virtual Disk Details. Press <Enter>.
    
3. Use the arrow keys to choose a virtual disk.
    
4. Virtual disk information is displayed at the top of the window and in the Virtual Disks field:
   Virtual disk number
   RAID level
   Physical disk size
   Size
   Status (R/W, R, NA)
    
5. Press <Esc> to return to the main window when finished.

Rescan Disks enables you to rescan all channels and detect new or removed physical disks or virtual disks.

• To perform a rescan, select Rescan Disks from the Main Menu field and press <Enter> (The activity indicator, in the information field at the top of the window, spins while the physical disks are being polled).
• The Rescan Disks option rescans all the channels, searches for new or removed physical disks, and re-reads the configuration information from each physical disk.

2.Creating a virtual disk

Below are the steps for creating the Virtual disk with the S100 S140 S300 controller:
Using the S140 controller as an example.

1. When the system is booting, press <Ctrl><R> to enter the S140 controller BIOS.
   
   
    

2. Select Create Virtual Disks from the Main Menu screen and press <Enter>.
   
   
    
    NOTE:  The S140 controller supports a maximum of 30 virtual disks per physical disk. You cannot modify any feature settings in UEFI or OPROM if the number of virtual disks exceeds the maximum limit of 30. For more information about troubleshooting this issue, see Unable to modify any feature settings in UEFI or OPROM.
3. In the Physical Disks field, select the physical disk on which you want to create a virtual disk:
    
4. After selecting the physical disk to be included in the virtual disk, press Enter.
    
5. To select a physical disk, press Insert.
   
   
    
6. In the User Input field, use the arrow keys to select a virtual disk type (RAID level) and press Enter.
   
   
    
7. Select a size for the virtual disk, depending on the available free space of the physical disks and press Enter.
   
   
    
8. In the User Input field, select a Caching Mode. Press Enter.
   
   
    
9. Press C to confirm that you want to create the virtual disk.
   
   

to configure email alert please review below article

How to Configure Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) Email Alerts | Dell US

Hope that helps!

@DELL-Erman O​ Thank you for your information. I have now actually got data that I need on the drives so I could do without having to remake the virtual drives and build the RAID again.

It looks like the OS sits on one of the virtual drives and the second one is for data. It must have come from Dell like this as I didn't do any configuration.

It would just be good if someone could confirm that from my screenshot in my post above if it looks like RAID has been correctly configured and is operational.

Cheers.

Hi,

Based on the picture, it seems fine to me. VD is normal status, 2 drives are online status. 

@DELL-Joey C​ Great thanks.

Any idea why iDRAC wont see my drives?

Hi,

There are few reasons that the error RAC0503 occurs. One of the reason is the firmware of the system mismatched. Can you check BIOS is up-to-date? You have already done the recommended step Reset to Factory default right? There is another troubleshooting step, that is to retire the server by using the Lifecycle controller option: Repurpose or Retire System. But, if you do not know entirely the server's configuration and settings, it is not recommended to try. This do not clear the OS data if you don't tick the option to clear hardware cache on Storage Components. 

If all else fails, you will need to replace the mainboard. 

@DELL-Joey C​ The BIOS is 2.15.1 which looks to be the latest.

There are some iDRAC and PERC updates on the site by the looks of it:

Would these have updated using the Lifecycle updater or would these have to be put on manually. Could not having these effect it not reading the hard drives?

I find it hard to believe its a motherboard issue. Its not very old this server (I know it could still have failed) but surely you'd see some other ill effect of this sort of hardware failure.

I have already performed all the recommended steps to get it working.

Hi,

I've just checked in the iDRAC user guide, it seems that iDRAC 9 is not able to support managing software RAID, hence that is the reason why you are not able to view the physical disk properties. This is normal. 

https://dell.to/3IpIO2z

@DELL-Joey C​ Thanks for all your help.

I guess I'll have a look at installing OMSA. Is that Dell software or third party. If its Dell are there any installation Doc's for it?

Again many thanks.

Hello,

yes it is a Dell software.

It depend by the version, but here the user guide of the version 10.

https://dell.to/3TldNSB

Thanks