# RAID monitoring on a IBM eServer xSeries 335

## [dmnd]

Hello everyone, 

We have several IBM eServers xSeries 335 and we want to monitor the health of the hardware RAID controller and want to get notified if a HDD goes byebye. 

Has someone ever done this before? 

Here's the type of controller its using: 

```

Fusion MPT base driver 3.01.16 

Copyright (c) 1999-2004 LSI Logic Corporation 

mptbase: Initiating ioc0 bringup 

ioc0: 53C1030: Capabilities={Initiator} 

Fusion MPT SCSI Host driver 3.01.16 

scsi0 : ioc0: LSI53C1030, FwRev=01000e00h, Ports=1, MaxQ=222, IRQ=22 

  Vendor: LSILOGIC  Model: 1030 IM           Rev: 1000 

  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02 

SCSI device sda: 286746624 512-byte hdwr sectors (146814 MB) 

SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back 

 /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 p3 p4 < p5 p6 p7 p8 > 

Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0 

  Vendor: IBM       Model: 25P3495a S320  1  Rev: 1 

  Type:   Processor                          ANSI SCSI revision: 02 

```

Would love to hear it! 

Thanks.

----------

## [dmnd]

Noone ?  :Sad: 

----------

## sgtrock

I've got a similar issue with a small server that is located in a remote location.  My needs are a bit simpler than yours, though.  

I did some googling and found two SCSI monitoring tools that are listed as supported by Gentoo that might be useful for you.  They are sg3_utils and smartmontools.  Of the two, I think that smartmontools is probably closer to what you want, as it includes a daemon to do background monitoring.

----------

## [dmnd]

 *sgtrock wrote:*   

> I've got a similar issue with a small server that is located in a remote location.  My needs are a bit simpler than yours, though.  
> 
> I did some googling and found two SCSI monitoring tools that are listed as supported by Gentoo that might be useful for you.  They are sg3_utils and smartmontools.  Of the two, I think that smartmontools is probably closer to what you want, as it includes a daemon to do background monitoring.

 

Im going to them check out! Thanks very much!  :Smile: 

----------

## zeek

 *[dmnd] wrote:*   

> Dell eServers xSeries 335

 

I thought xSeries were IBM boxes?

----------

## [dmnd]

 *zeek wrote:*   

>  *[dmnd] wrote:*   Dell eServers xSeries 335 
> 
> I thought xSeries were IBM boxes?

 

Yeah, mistake from my side  :Smile: 

The above tools use the generic SCSI driver and the url is a completely different raid controller.

Any other suggestions?  :Smile: 

Thanks,

wouter

----------

## sgtrock

Unfortunately, no, I don't.  Those were the only two toolsets that I found that looked at all worthwhile.  I've had the daemon from smartmontools running on my server for just a couple of days, so I can't give you much in the way of personal feedback.  However, while I was doing my research I did run across this article.  It does a great job of explaining the state of SMART technology.  You might find that you really don't need a vendor specific solution.

I think it's probably worth your time to at least emerge the smartmontools and check it out for yourself.  You might be pleasantly surprised.

----------

## [dmnd]

 *sgtrock wrote:*   

> Unfortunately, no, I don't.  Those were the only two toolsets that I found that looked at all worthwhile.  I've had the daemon from smartmontools running on my server for just a couple of days, so I can't give you much in the way of personal feedback.  However, while I was doing my research I did run across this article.  It does a great job of explaining the state of SMART technology.  You might find that you really don't need a vendor specific solution.
> 
> I think it's probably worth your time to at least emerge the smartmontools and check it out for yourself.  You might be pleasantly surprised.

 

Im going to test this, we have some servers with Mylex controllers also, and those controllers allow you to read out /dev/rd/status for instance, if it contains a OK, it means its ok. It looks like this controller doesnt have such a device name.

Thanks for your response!

Wouter

----------

## [dmnd]

Just tried smartmontools, no result however  :Sad: :

```

mx0(root) ~ # smartctl -a /dev/sda

smartctl version 5.30 Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen

Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

Device: LSILOGIC 1030 IM          Version: 1000

Device type: disk

Local Time is: Sun Dec 26 16:12:48 2004 CET

Device does not support SMART

Device does not support Error Counter logging

Device does not support Self Test logging

mx0(root) ~ #

```

----------

## sgtrock

Hmmm.  I gathered from the article that I referenced earlier that virtually all disk vendors and many (most?) tape vendors were supporting SMART now.  It's too bad that yours don't.    :Sad: 

I don't have any further suggesting short of looking for drives that do support it.  I realize that may not be an option for you, however.  Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

----------

