PERC S150 Raid-1 Confusion

Question

Hello, I am having an issue with our primary server's RAID configuration. This is a Windows 2022 Server that I setup a few years back, and I thought I set it up as a RAID-1 mirror with 2 physical hard drives. I had not checked the RAID logs in the last 2 years due to some health issues; but I am currently viewing the logs now and am confused at what I'm seeing. Forgive my ignorance, I have little familiarity with RAID setups.

PHYSICAL DISKS STATUS:

As you can see, the second physical disk is showing as READY; does this mean i possibly never assigned the second physical disk as part of the RAID setup? I have never swapped a physical drive on this server so I am confused by what I am looking at.

VIRTUAL DISKS STATUS

I am a bit confused why there are two virtual disks showing.

VIRTUAL DISK 1 STATUS

VIRTUAL DISK 2 STATUS

On the surface it appears to me that I never assigned the second physical drive as part of the RAID-1 mirror setup (but that still leaves confusion regarding the second virtual disk). I just want to be sure of what I'm looking at before I proceed. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks!

DELL-Charles R · Accepted Answer

Hello,

First I would recommend to confirm you have good backup when dealing with hard drive issues.

PD 0:1 shows Ready on one screen shot and on another it shows Failed Non-RAID. It should be RAID Capable.

You may need to replace the drive but lets try to get it to RAID capable and start rebuilding into the RAID-1

Look here for converting RAID

Converting to RAID disks page 24

S150 User Guide

http://dell.to/4fNipdf

Check if it starts rebuilding automatically.

If it doesn’t then try setting it as a Global Hot Spare

Assigning the global hot spare disks Page 26

http://dell.to/4fNipdf

DELL-Young E · Answer

Hello, I think if you power down at around 80%, it will go back to square one. The rebuilding will start from zero once again. Respectfully,

2465 · Answer

@DELL-Charles R​ Thank you for the response. I have remote access to the server but I won't be on-site until the weekend. I can assign the hot spare through the OMSA interface; should I attempt that at this point, or wait until I am able to try your first suggestion? Thank you.

DELL-Young E · Answer

Hello, backup should be the #1 priority.   Respectfully,

2465 · Answer

@DELL-Young E​ Thank you. I have multiple backups in place currently, as well as  a fresh one from last night.

DELL-Joey C · Answer

Hi,

As the title states, it is confusing. You only have 2 drives in the server right? There should be only 1 RAID1 VD, but in the screenshot it is showing 2 VDs. You're saying you have a hotspare? But it is not showing up in physical disk view. I'd wonder if the hot spare is the one showing failed as Non-RAID. What are the available option listed on Physical Disk 0:1? You might want to check on the logs, for some clues on which drive has failed, so you do not use it as the rebuild disk.

2465 · Answer

@DELL-Joey C​ Yes there are only two physical drives in the server. No hotspare just the two drives mirroring eachother (assuming I set it up correctly in the first place). The available options for Physical Disk 0:1 are 'Assign Global Hot Spare' and 'Set Disk Cache Policy'. I am considering trying the 'Assign Global Hot Spare' function as Dell-Charles R recommended, I just want to confirm that is safe to do at this point. Let me know your thoughts. Thank you for your reply.

DELL-Charles R · Answer

Hello,   Yes the next step would be to set as Global Hot Spare.

2465 · Answer

@DELL-Charles R I was able to assign Drive 0:1 as a hot spare and it is currently rebuilding (at 75%). Is it safe to power-down during the rebuild? I am asking as I have a separate issue that I need to reboot for.

Thank you.

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

PERC S150 Raid-1 Confusion

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