Knowing which RAID level is used.

unforkable · 12-06-2010, 09:43 AM

Hello,

I have a server that I administer remotely (ssh), how can I know which RAID level is used? (supposing that hardware RAID is used)

Thank you.

chickenjoy · 12-06-2010, 09:48 AM

hardware raid is not transparent to the operating system so you will not to be able to find out from using any command. You will need to access the hw raid's configuration menu - which is independent from the os.

stress_junkie · 12-06-2010, 10:03 AM

Correction:

Quote:

Originally Posted by chickenjoy

hardware raid is not transparent to the operating system ...

Hardware RAID is transparent to the operating system ...

chickenjoy · 12-06-2010, 10:15 AM

Quote:

If your RAID controller is fully supported by Linux as a RAID controller (i.e. it sees it as a RAID controller and not a bog-standard SCSI/SATA/PATA controller), the you may find useful information in the /proc filesystem and find tools out there that display/monitor this information for you. If you know the RAID controllers that are in your machines, you might want to add that detail to your question then people with specific knowledge of that controller might pipe up with more specific information.

If you do not have any OS level tools to monitor the hardware, then you will need to reboot the machines and interact with the RAID controller's boot-time configuration code.

source: http://serverfault.com/questions/533...-is-configured

Always thought it was the latter. I guess I was wrong in generalizing. thanks stress_junkie.

valen_tino · 12-06-2010, 11:15 AM

Correct... h/w RAID is transparent to the OS.

2 ways to find the RAID level:
1. Through a hardware management software. This is usually a web interface so no restart is required.
2. Through the RAID controller BIOS setting which can be viewed during server boot. This will require a machine restart.

AFAIK there is no way to determine the hardware RAID set through a Linux shell terminal itself.

jwl17330536 · 12-06-2010, 12:49 PM

or #3.

Install the support software provided by the OS manufacturer. Every company has their own. Dell uses OpenManage and HP uses Insight Manager... Just examples.

Once that is installed then you can research the commands or post back with the application and someone here might be able to help you.

unforkable · 12-07-2010, 07:08 AM

Thanks everyone

That was very informative.