UCS C240 M6, RedHat and RAID

[Graha]

UCS Boffins,

I have been tasked to install RedHat 8 onto a UCS C240 M6 server. RAID has been configured and the operating system installed and working correctly. What I need to know is how are the RAID volumes monitored/queried from the operating system itself? I have configured online spare disks for several of the RAID volumes, but I need to know when a drive dies and is in need of replacement. Can the drives be queries/reported on within the OS? 

Graha.

[Kirk J · Accepted solution]

Greetings.

I would suggest setting up several things, starting with email alerts from your CIMC, which will send alerts for failed drives or degraded raid (VD).

As to the OS level awareness of the underlying raid and drive status, Broadcom (LSI) does have a utility called LSA  "The LSI Storage Authority (LSA) is a web-based application that enables you to monitor, maintain, troubleshoot, and configure the Broadcom MegaRAID products."

If you download the linux utilities ISO (ucs-cxxx-utils-linux.4.2.1a.iso) for this server (version 4.2.1a as an example) from https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286329285/type/283850975/os/Linux/release/4.2(1a) , it will be in the /Storage/LSI/UCSC-RAID-M6/LSA/LSA-007-015-010-Linux.zip

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/storage-and-ethernet-connectivity/enterprise-storage-solutions/lsa-lsi-storage-authority-software/2-7/LSA_help_overview.html

Also in the same ISO, /Storage/LSI/UCSC-RAID-M6/StorCLI , there is the StorCLI utility that is good for interactive diagnostics, changes, queries, etc.

Kirk...

[Graha]

Thanks for the info Kirk - it looks like the Linux utilities ISO I currently have (4.3.2d) has these utilities listed as "inbox" (I assume this is referring to the utility now being provided by the OS and not separately). I will investigate those to see if they can do what I need. I might try an older ISO file as you mentioned above to see if the utility is there. Edit: I have the latest driver DVD, not utilities DVD. Grabbing that now.

I have also upgraded firmware and CICM software to the latest version and can now see the RAID config through the CICM (which I couldn't earlier) - this fixes part of my question as I can view and modify the RAID config without having to shutdown the server now.

Graha.

[BrianSekleckiGE]

Are you seeking an NMS interface via API/WSDL, like Dell OMSA? Or something for something simple like a script that you can call from a NAGIOS agent?

[Graha]

Our customer is running SolarWinds for monitoring, so primarily need reporting and alerting if a drive dies or the RAID volumes are in a degraded state (tickets can be raised, red lights can be flashed, bells can be sounded etc).

I am yet to see if there are SNMP OIDs for this, which would also work. It would also be good to be able to get a view of the RAID configuration without having to reboot the server and go through the BIOS tools.