0

I have two 256 GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD disks in a RAID 1 array. I would like to receive a notification if one of the disks in the array fails. Can anybody recommend an application I can install on the server to fire an email if such an event occurs?

Here are some additional specs:

Supermicro X9SCM-IIF motherboard utilising the hardware RAID controller.

OS = Windows 2012 Standard

Also is it possible to simulate a disk failure by pulling it out of the bay? SSDs appear to fail close together when in a mirrored config so I'd like to know ASAP if one goes down so I can swap them out with minimum delay.

UPDATE 26th June 2013 ------------------------

None of the software that ships with the Supermicro X9SCM-* motherboards offer support for RAID monitoring. As has been pointed out here, these boards are built on an Intel chipset for RAID and so I installed Intel Rapid Storage Technology that supports automated email notifications on RAID failure http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/cs-020784.htm

One small issue, the software only allows you to send email notifications without SMTP authentication. There's a bunch of different workarounds here: http://communities.intel.com/thread/30771

3
  • You can simulate one type of disk failure by pulling a drive out: Total failure of the drive. There are still other failure modes that can occur, which means removing a drive isn't always the best test of failure. You may also find that you have to have a process actively accessing the drive before yanking a drive will report a failure. Jun 15, 2013 at 22:57
  • Thanks that's useful to know. I've never needed to test these scenarios before, this is a new area for me. If one SSD disk is removed (in RAID 1), modifications are made to the sole remaining disk and then a fresh disk is inserted in the place of the one removed, will the hardware controller gracefully sync the disks again? Does this happen without prompt? or is it down to the controller + software?
    – QFDev
    Jun 16, 2013 at 10:36
  • It's down to the controller configuration. Some will automatically rebuild if the right size and type of drive is replaced, others require intervention. That's another question though :) Jun 16, 2013 at 22:54

2 Answers 2

3

Your Supermicro comes with (or is downloadable) software that can do this for you.

First, Supermicro offer their "SuperDoctorIII" software: http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/software/SuperDoctorIII.cfm which will help with monitoring.

Second, I believe that mobo uses an Intel chip for the RAID controller, you should be able to download the Intel Matrix Storage Manager software to fully monitor the RAID controller:

Intel Matrix Storage Manager

Hope that helps.

1
  • Unfortunately SuperDoctor III doesn't support disk monitoring. On the plus side, the Supermicro X9SCM-* motherboards use an Intel Chip for the RAID controller and so I was able to install Intel Rapid Storage Technology (The updated version of Intel Storage Managers), these drivers support automated email notifications intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/cs-020784.htm
    – QFDev
    Jun 26, 2013 at 9:05
2

Your RAID controller should expose this information through SNMP and possibly WMI if running Windows. You can also usually see this info through any OOB management or IPMI interface. Standard monitoring tools like Nagios, SCOM, Zabbix, etc can all monitor this and send alerts.

Windows can also be configured to take an action if certain events occur in the event log by using task scheduler. Your RAID controller will most likely publish failure events to the event log as well. Consult your manual for this information.

0

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .