topic Ways to know the hardware raid configuration in Operating System - Linux

Ways to know the hardware raid configuration

Jiten Joshi — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:24:34 GMT

Hi All,

I have a HP ML370 server running Red Hat Linux. It is having two hard disks.

I would like to know how to check which hardware array configuration it is running, that is whether it is raid0 or raid1.

Please help..Thanks

Re: Ways to know the hardware raid configuration

Matti_Kurkela — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:46:14 GMT

Which version of RedHat Linux?

Run "cat /proc/driver/cciss/cciss0" to see some basic information on the SmartArray logical drives, including their RAID levels.

Example output:
----
$ cat /proc/driver/cciss/cciss0
cciss0: HP Smart Array P400 Controller
Board ID: 0x3234103c
Firmware Version: 5.22
IRQ: 170
Logical drives: 2
Sector size: 2048
Current Q depth: 0
Current # commands on controller: 0
Max Q depth since init: 161
Max # commands on controller since init: 322
Max SG entries since init: 31
Sequential access devices: 0

cciss/c0d0: 146.77GB RAID 1(1+0)
cciss/c0d1: 146.77GB RAID 1(1+0)
----
Here the SmartArray controller is configured to show 2 logical disks with RAID 1 configuration. "(1+0)" means this array can be expanded to RAID 1+0 by adding more disks; with only 2 physical disks it is fully equivalent to RAID 1.

If you have the "hpacucli" tool installed (included in Proliant Support Pack and also available as separate RPM file from HP support webpages), you can also use this command to get a more detailed listing of SmartArray configuration information, including even the model and serial numbers of physical hard disks:

hpacucli ctrl all show config detail | less

MK

Re: Ways to know the hardware raid configuration

smatador — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:47:02 GMT

Hi,
Do you have an internal raid card ?
lspci
After that, you should check if you have some hp tools like Array configuration utility.
HTH

Re: Ways to know the hardware raid configuration

Jiten Joshi — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:24:25 GMT

Thanks guys,

I used the #cat /proc/driver/cciss/cciss0 command to check the raid configuration. It is in raid 1+0.

My other concern is that when I replace the failed hard disk, will it rebuild by itself or do I have to use any commands?

Please assist..thanks

Re: Ways to know the hardware raid configuration

Matti_Kurkela — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:38:55 GMT

The auto-rebuild feature is enabled in SmartArray controllers by default; you would need the Array Configuration Utility (either the web GUI or the command-line "hpacucli" version) to confirm if someone has disabled it.

If you don't have the "hpacucli" command installed, go to:

http://www.hp.com/go/support

Select "Download drivers and software", and type in the model of your SmartArray controller (on the first line of "cat /proc/driver/cciss/cciss0" output), or the full model string of your Proliant server ("ML370 Gx", where x is the generation number of your server) and press Enter to begin the search.

If necessary, confirm your SmartArray/server model on the next page. Then select your OS version (RedHat Enterprise Linux 3/4/5, 32 or 64-bit version).

Then select the category "Software - System Management" and you'll find the "HP Array Configuration Utility CLI for Linux". It should be a single modest-sized RPM package.
Install it (with "rpm -ivh hpacucli-*.rpm" or by clicking on the package icon if you use the RHEL GUI desktop. Then use the command listed in my previous answer. It should display a long list of configuration settings, including something like "Auto-rebuild: enabled (or disabled)".

MK

Re: Ways to know the hardware raid configuration

Steven E. Protter — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:51:41 GMT

Shalom,

hardware raid rebuilds itself, soon as a new good disk is inserted into the hot swap slot.

PSP for your server includes all needed utilities including a web page that will display the information you originally seeked.

SEP

Re: Ways to know the hardware raid configuration

Jiten Joshi — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:16:43 GMT

Thank you guys