[BlueOnyx:03397] Re: Disks not set up correctly? no raid?

[Chris Gebhardt - VIRTBIZ Internet]

Hi Jim,
First off.... do away with this business:
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Gag a maggot!  Eeewww!  :)

As to your question:

> I've recently bought a new Dell server with two scsi hard drives 
> (146GB). When I installed from the BlueOnyx disk it pretty much set it 
> all up without any input from me and it had said if it detected two 
> disks it would set up RAID. This server is a R410, a sucessor to the 
> 1905 (if memory serves). Has add-in SAS6/IR controller which supports 2 
> hot-plug drives - RAID 1.

OK, so I'm guessing that you have the hardware RAID set up, then?   ie: 
your RAID controller boots up and you can access the RAID management 
during the boot-cycle and view your single logical container that spans 
2 physical disks?

> So I tried a couple commands:
> # smartctl -i -d scsi /dev/sda
> Device: Dell virtual disk <etc>
> Device does not support SMART   (what the?)

Right... your RAID controller that is presenting the volume as a "disk" 
to the OS doesn't support SMART.  (It's likely running its own health 
tools... check your documentation).

> # mdadm -D /dev/md1
> No such file or directory
> # mdadm -D /dev/md0
> device does not appear to be active

This indicates to me that my assumption regarding the hardware RAID is 
correct.   It's not a Linux software RAID.

> # fdisk -l
> disk /dev/sda: 146 GB, ..
> /dev/sda1  *    ....  Linux
> /dev/sda2              Linux LVM

Dito.

> # cat /proc/mdstat
> Personalities:
> unused devices: <none>

Dito.

> # cat /etc/fstab
> /dev/VolGroup00/root   /
> /dev/VolGroup00/var    /var
> /dev/VolGroup00/home    /home
> /dev/VolGroup00/tmp    /tmp
> LABEL=/boot  .....
> <etc>

Dito.

> So my concern is that although both drives are showing a green LED 
> indicator light, the maybe I don't have RAID set up? Without SMART, not 
> sure how I will monitor these drives' health? Any advice? Server has 
> been placed into production but could take it offline for a short time.

Check your hardware distributor for tools that would be available for 
monitoring disk health.

-- 
Chris Gebhardt
VIRTBIZ Internet Services
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