RAID 1 remote diagnostic

[Fred H]

I just built a file server (P4 MB w/RAID support, 1 x IDE boot drive, 2
x SATA data drives in a RAID 1 configuration). Haven't put an OS on yet
but the concept is that I'll have a wireless PCI card in the thing and
access it from my other computers. But how will I know if a drive goes
down? There's gotta be a way without shutting the system down and
rebooting. I know the real deal hot-swappable drives have lights on
them but that's not what I have. Ideally I would want to run a utility
from a remote computer.

Fred

 

[Clint]

Just a couple of thoughts...

Write a batch file/script that tries to hit the RAID array every so often,
and if it fails, have it send you an e-mail
Do the same thing off the remote machine, hitting the RAID drive. Of
course, you won't know if it's failing because your network is down or the
HD
Use VBScript with WMI to see if the HD exists, and send you an e-mail if it
fails.

Heck, you could even use the VS Express Edition packages to create a little
tool tray type application on the remote machine. Again, you wouldn't know
if it happened because the network failed or because the HD failed, though.

Clint

 

[Pooh Bear]

Just a couple of thoughts...

Write a batch file/script that tries to hit the RAID array every so often,
and if it fails, have it send you an e-mail

Isn't the whole point of RAID ( mirroring ) that it *doesn't* fail ?

Your idea just fell at the first hurdle.

Graham

 

[Clint]

You're right; I was thinking about if the RAID itself failed, which isn't
outside the realm of possibility, especially with only 2 drives in the
array.

Clint

 

[hdrdtd]

Actually if I remember, the original question was more along the lines
of.....

He has a server running in another room somewhere, and on that server he's
using a RAID 1 (mirror) using the built-in RAID controller of the MB.

Somewhere down the road, IF one of the HD's in the RAID 1 array dies, the
system itself will continue to run off the remaining HD, but, how will he
ever know that one of the HD's has failed, leaving the RAID 1 array running
in a degraded state.

I believe he was asking if there was some feature of either the hardware on
the MB (RAID controller) or of whatever OS he installs, that he could make
use of to be able tell that a HD has failed and needs to be replaced.

of course this all depends on the features of the RAID controller itself and
possibly of the OS.

at the very least, you should be able to inspect the event logs (If it's a
Windows OS) to check for logged events indicating the RAID array has been
degraded due to a HD failure.

the server is in another room, so he can't see any error lights that may or
may not be flashing on the hardware itself.


RAID arrays DO 'fail'. They just allow for redundancy in various forms
(except RAID 0) , so that if one component (HD) fails, the system will
continue to operate with no data loss until such a time as you can replace
the failed component.