Contabo tutorial: How to manage your RAID controller in Linux

Please note: This tutorial focusses on Linux OS. Should you be a Windows user instead, please confer our respective tutorial on how to manage your RAID controller in Windows.

Monitoring a RAID array

A hardware RAID has certain advantages, but also a hardware RAID has to be monitored. We always rely on tried and tested hardware to minimize the risk of a hardware failure, but there is always the risk that hardware fails, therefore monitoring the hardware is even more important to guarantee that the server will keep running properly.

In the case of a software RAID, the operating system generates messages about the RAID; with a hardware RAID, the controller does it itself – but you need a special software to read these messages.

This blog entry shows the installation and use of the Adaptec and LSI software on Linux operating systems.
There are also graphical interfaces available for managing raidcontrollers, such as a web interface.

Please contact our support department in case you are not sure which controller was added to your server.

Please note: Updating the controller’s firmware or the operating system’s driver may lead to a complete loss of all data stored on that RAID!

For this tutorial some additional software is needed, for Ubuntu 17.10 it can be installed using the following command “apt install zip unzip net-tools”

1. Adaptec

An overview of available software for your Adaptec controller can be found here: https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/support/series6/index.php

1.1 Installation of the arcconf binary

Installing the binary with the Linux commandline is very easy, you can manage the controller using that binary afterwards.

If you’re not sure about your admin rights, always enter the command sudo -i at the beginning of every session:

sudo -i

This command will grant you the rights of a power user, so you don’t have to write the command sudo at the beginning of every command line.

A download link for the latest available binary can be found on the above mentioned website by clicking on the “Storage Manager Downloads” link.
The “arcconf” binary can be used for various Adaptec products, usually there is no need for additional software.
In this tutorial we are going to download the following binary: https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/speed/raid/storage_manager/arcconf_v2_03_22476_zip.php

On your commandline just type:

wget http://download.adaptec.com/raid/storage_manager/arcconf_v2_03_22476.zip && unzip arcconf_v2_03_22476.zip

Now move the binary to your binary folder and make it executable:

mv linux_x64/cmdline/arcconf /usr/sbin/ && chmod +x /usr/sbin/arcconf

The “arcconf” command should be available now.

1.2 Monitoring the raidcontroller

Usually the RAID should have an “OPTIMAL” value, in case one HDD fails the controller will start to send an audible alarm signal. That signal will be recognized by our technicians working in the datacenter, in this case we will contact you and inform you about a possible hardware failure.

With the parameter “arcconf GETCONFIG 1” you will get all information regarding the 1st controller installed to your system. In case you have installed more than one controller you could display the information of the 2nd controller by typing “arcconf GETCONFIG 2”.

A list of available options can be displayed by typing “arcconf getconfig”.

The most important status can be filtered out by typing “arcconf getconfig 1 | grep Status” into the commandline.

root@contabo:~# arcconf getconfig 1 | grep Status Controller Status : Optimal Status : ZMM not installed Status of Logical Device : Optimal

“ZMM not installed” shows that this controller currently has no BBU (batterie backup unit) installed, a BBU can be installed at any time as an upgrade.

A “Degraded” status on a LD (Logical Device) indicates that there must be an issue.
root@contabo:~# arcconf getconfig 1 | grep Status Controller Status : Optimal Status : ZMM not installed Status of Logical Device : Degraded

To check if there is any failed drive (in this scenario the SSD failed), type in the following command and you will see the “State : Failed” information:

root@contabo:~# arcconf getconfig 1 PD Controllers found: 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Physical Device information ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Device #0 Device is a Hard drive State : Failed Block Size : 512 Bytes Failed logical device segments : True Supported : Yes Transfer Speed : Failed Reported Channel,Device(T:L) : 0,0(0:0) Reported Location : Connector 0, Device 0 Vendor : Model : Crucial_CT275MX3 Firmware : M0CR040 Serial number : 11111111111111 World-wide name : 500A075116639956 Total Size : 262321 MB Write Cache : Enabled (write-back) FRU : None S.M.A.R.T. : No S.M.A.R.T. warnings : 0 Power State : Full rpm Supported Power States : Full power,Powered off,Standby SSD : Yes Temperature : Not Supported NCQ status : Enabled

To replace a failed drive just contact us, we will immediately take care of it. To speed up the process you should provide us with the above output. It shows the S/N and the port that drive is attached to. In this case the S/N is “11111111111111” and the attached Port is “0”.

As soon as the drive got replaced the rebuild should start automatically:

root@contabo:~# arcconf getconfig 1 | grep Status Controller Status : Optimal Status : ZMM not installed Status of Logical Device : Degraded, Rebuilding ( Rebuild : 1 % )

Depending on your RAID setup this will probably take several hours.

1.3 Installing an available Webinterface

For Adaptec there is the “MaxView Storage Manager” available, it can be downloaded here: https://storage.microsemi.com/de-de/speed/raid/storage_manager/msm_linux_x64_v2_03_22476_tgz.php

You could also just download it via commandline:

wget http://download.adaptec.com/raid/storage_manager/msm_linux_x64_v2_03_22476.tgz && tar -xzf msm_linux_x64_v2_03_22476.tgz

The installer is located within the directory called “manager” – that directory will be created when unpacking the downloaded archive.
For our system (Ubuntu 17.04) we will install the package using the following command:

dpkg -i manager/StorMan-2.03-22476_amd64.deb

Afterwards you should be able to reach the webinterface at https://<SERVERIP>:8443

2. LSI

2.1 Installation of the StorCLI binary

Download of the commandline Binary :

wget https://docs.broadcom.com/docs-and-downloads/raid-controllers/raid-controllers-common-files/1.21.16_StorCLI.zip --no-check-certificate && unzip 1.21.16_StorCLI.zip && cd versionChangeSet/univ_viva_cli_rel/ && unzip storcli_All_OS.zip

For our system we will install the Ubuntu package by typing:
dpkg -i storcli_All_OS/Ubuntu/storcli_1.21.06_all.deb
Create a link to make the “storcli” command available to your shell.ln -s /opt/MegaRAID/storcli/storcli64 /usr/sbin/storcli

2.2 Monitoring the raidcontroller

You can display the current status of the raidcontroller by typing:

root@contabo:~#storcli /c0 show

TOPOLOGY : ======== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- DG Arr Row EID:Slot DID Type State BT Size PDC PI SED DS3 FSpace ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 - - - - RAID1 Optl N 255.656 GB dflt N N dflt N 0 0 - - - RAID1 Optl N 255.656 GB dflt N N dflt N 0 0 0 64:4 12 DRIVE Onln N 255.656 GB dflt N N dflt - 0 0 1 64:5 13 DRIVE Onln N 255.656 GB dflt N N dflt - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Example of a failed HDD:

TOPOLOGY : ======== ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DG Arr Row EID:Slot DID Type State BT Size PDC PI SED DS3 FSpace ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 - - - - RAID1 Dgrd N 255 GB dflt N N dflt N 0 0 - - - RAID1 Dgrd N 255 GB dflt N N dflt N 0 0 0 - - DRIVE Msng - 255 GB - - - - - 0 0 1 64:5 13 DRIVE Onln N 255 GB dflt N N dflt - ---------------------------------------------------------------------

root@contabo:~#storcli /c0 /sall show

Controller = 0 Status = Failure Description = No drive found! Detailed Status : =============== ---------------------------------------- Drive Status ErrCd ErrMsg ---------------------------------------- /c0/sALL Failure 255 Drives not found ----------------------------------------

To display the current status of the rebuild you can run:

root@contabo:~#storcli /c0 /eall /sall show rebuild

Controller = 0 Status = Success Description = Show Drive Rebuild Status Succeeded. --------------------------------------------------------- Drive-ID Progress% Status Estimated Time Left --------------------------------------------------------- /c0/e64/s4 0 In progress - /c0/e64/s5 - Not in progress - ---------------------------------------------------------

2.3 Installing an available webinterface

Unfortunately, there is currently no webinterface available for Linux.