Basic LSI/IBM card, how do I know when drive fails?

[katit]

This might sound like a stupid question, but I never used raid controllers and need to know

So, I will get this card for $100.. I will have RAID1 with 2 disks. And I will run ESXi on this box. One drive failed. How do I know that it did? And how do I know which one?

I guess fixing it - just power off, replace drive and power on, right?

 

[chinesestunna]

This might sound like a stupid question, but I never used raid controllers and need to know

So, I will get this card for $100.. I will have RAID1 with 2 disks. And I will run ESXi on this box. One drive failed. How do I know that it did? And how do I know which one?

I guess fixing it - just power off, replace drive and power on, right?

What make and model are you talking about?

 

[katit]

LSI MEGARAID SAS/SATA/SSD 9260-4i from eBay. Dell or IBM

 

[chinesestunna]

Couple things to think about with these, Dell/IBM version is often missing certain advanced RAID features such as RAID 50/60. Since you're just doing RAID1, why not just get a IR HBA and save some $. You can get a Dell H200, LSI 9211 clone for about $50-60 shipped on eBay and that has 8 ports vs 4 for the 9260-4i you're looking at

 

[mrkrad]

Megaraid controllers are more stable under ESXi thank IR controllers. Just my experience. Even running them without battery, cache bypassed for SSD. IR LSI controllers freak out now and then!

 

[chinesestunna]

Megaraid controllers are more stable under ESXi thank IR controllers. Just my experience. Even running them without battery, cache bypassed for SSD. IR LSI controllers freak out now and then!

Interesting, good to know Is that just natively in ESXi for VM stores or VT-d as well?

 

[mrkrad]

Natively for local vmfs datastores. I don't use VT-d at all!

 

[katit]

Great! But how do I know when drive fails

Also, if it's 4 channel card, can I use it to add another pair of drives? Another RAID1?

So, I can start with a pair and let's say we need more storage. Can we add another 2 drives and create another RAID1 Or this card supports one raid only?

 

[mrkrad]

They support multiple raids, usually 2 to 64 raids per controller.

You install the SMI-S provider which throws alerts to vcenter when hardware status changes to poor!

 

[katit]

vCenter costing money I'm planning on free ESXi.. Is there something in controller's bios? Like I read that INTEL card (which won't work for me and expensive now that I learn about megaraid) will beep.

Something like that maybe? Light, beep?

 

[chinesestunna]

vCenter costing money I'm planning on free ESXi.. Is there something in controller's bios? Like I read that INTEL card (which won't work for me and expensive now that I learn about megaraid) will beep.

Something like that maybe? Light, beep?

That's why VT-d works for this, you can pass the controller to the storage management VM and manage it with the software provided by the manufacturer.
Keep in mind you're starting to go down the enterprise hardware/software path, while the features are great they will start costing $. I've been down the road you're walking, repurposing existing consumer hardware and while I was able to get stuff to work most of the time, there were definitely a lot of hacking/research/near miss disasters that I don't think is worth it anymore, just my opinion

 

[mrkrad]

How to Enable RAID Monitoring and Configuration Under ESXi 5.x - Stone Computers :: Knowledgebase <-- how to run MSM in a vm under esxi

 

[katit]

repurposing existing consumer hardware and while I was able to get stuff to work most of the time, there were definitely a lot of hacking/research/near miss disasters that I don't think is worth it anymore, just my opinion

I agree with your opinion, but I don't think we need it. What I'm thinking about doing is nice to have, currently we do without.
For my important data I have windows at home with WD blacks in software RAID1. Daily backup to USB drive and important files on Carbonite. Thats it. Works for 4+ years now..

Just trying to be reasonable. I don't want to pay for vCenter in order to get email notification To me it's not worth it and it actually makes it too complex.

 

[chinesestunna]

How to Enable RAID Monitoring and Configuration Under ESXi 5.x - Stone Computers :: Knowledgebase <-- how to run MSM in a vm under esxi

This is awesome, learned something today Thanks!

 

[katit]

Btw, I didn't get card yet. But I did study manual. There is one LED jumper that shows failure (any failure) and another connector with pins for each channel failure. So, I can pretty easy put LED out to front panel and since I sit next to the box - it will be good enough

Now I wonder how to test it. If I unplug power to 1 drive while running, should it detect failure?

 

[mrkrad]

if the drive is part of an array, yes!

 

[Rhinox]

Now I wonder how to test it. If I unplug power to 1 drive while running, should it detect failure?

Not sure what drives are you using, but I do not think standard sata power-port is capable of "hot-plug". You might generate a power-peak high enough to bring your server down...

If you want to test it, install storcli/megacli on ESXi, and use it to mark some drive as failed/missing. MSM should then detect it.

But honestly, this way of raid-monitoring seems to me to be quite difficult. And what's worse, depending on VM running, MSM, network, etc. You could monitor raid-controller with storcli/megacli, cron, and a little scripting (i.e. fire storcli every "x" minutes from cron, check arrays, if some failed/missing disk or degraded array found, send email). This could be accomplished directly on ESXi, without any other dependency...

 

[katit]

I think you confusing matters. I found that I can connect LED directly to controller. This is 100% acceptable for me as I see server in front of me and red LED will tell me all I need. I just wanted to see how I can test it. I don't need any software solutions if it will work at controller-level.

 

[mrkrad]

Sata is hot pluggable, for sure, but whether you want to do that to your drive/ssd is up to you!

 

[katit]

Ok, well. If I power down, disconnect one driver and power up. It should work but report error, right? (RAID1)