RE: How do I check the raid configuration on a PowerEdge T310 Jump to solution I'm running Windows Small Business Server 2010 (i.e. Server 2008 r2 with Exchange 2010 & SharePoint 2010).
- Check Raid Array Health Windows
- How To Check Raid Status Windows
- Check Raid Status Windows Server 2003
I need to check the status of a RAID array on an Intel controller from my Windows application periodically (or be notified about a status change). Specifically, what I need is to find out whether a RAID 5 array is healthy or one of its disks is missing.
I tried parsing output of raidcfg32 (available from the Intel site, see this readme), but it works only with one of servers my application need to monitor. On other servers raidcfg32 reports an ‘unsupported hardware’ error. I also tried CmdTool2, but it was unable to find the controller altogether.
The only remaining option of RAID array monitoring supplied by Intel is a bunch of GUI applications (Intel Matrix Storage Management Console, Intel Rapid Storage Technology).
The controllers in question are: ESB2, 631xESB/632xESB.
I believe I have read through the few posts here on Stack Overflow that are relevant to my problem, and none of them contains an answer. In an answer to the question ‘Can I get Raid disk status by using PS?’, for instance, what is suggested actually allows to check if the controller, not the array, is healthy (it always is).
What am I looking for is an automated way of accessing the status information (from a .NET application, to be specific). Any option is good, be it via WMI, a .NET or native API, console output parsing or whatever.
I find it confusing that the suggested way of monitoring RAID status is via a GUI application. What approaches are used in enterprise deployments with tens of servers to do this programmatically?
3 Answers
I've been looking for this also. I have ICHxxx series controllers and am trying to get a contact at Intel to respond about the existance of a public API, but I'm not optimistic.
Here's what I've come up with for the short-term. Intel records the RAID events to the Windows Event Log under 'IAANTmon'. So you can use System.Diagnostics.EventLog, hooking the EventWrittenEventHandler, then filtering for 'IAANTmon'.
and
EJAEJAI've been looking into this as well, seems like smartmontools is the best option.Unfortunately, I didn't find a package that suits my .NET-needs and as it is just something basic, I didn't spend hours on finding a proper solution.
I resorted to starting 'smartctl --scan' (part of smartmontools) at the start of my application (Process.Start), harvesting the list of devices from the output and then periodically starting 'smartctl -H device-name' for each device.
This will return the SMART overal health test-results of the disk, as long as 'PASSED' is returned, you should be safe.
While this is far from ideal, it does gives some indication of the health of my raid-disks.
As of 11/16/18, Windows 10, I've run into the same issue, needing to check raid status for intel Raid 10.
EJA's answer mostly worked - I did not get any logs written to source 'IAANTmon', however.
At this point I used EJA's answer, but, filter by source 'IAStorDataMgrSvc'. This is where my raid event logs are written. Furthermore, I checked the messages contain either 'Degraded' or 'Rebuilding'. This will exclude the startup events and pull logs such as 'Volume Degraded', 'Volume Rebuilding in progress', 'Volume Rebuilding complete'.
I ended up with something like:
At startup I also checked logs from previous few days incase a drive was flagged degraded while my program was not running -
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Your hard drive is the soul of your PC, the place where all your most important data is stored. While most PC components can be replaced, the invaluable data on your hard drive can’t if you haven’t created a backup. For this reason, ensuring your hard drive stays healthy is crucial (anyone get the dull hard drive-related pun?).
There are various ways to check on your hard drive health – from built-in methods in Windows to your HDD manufacturer’s diagnostic tools, and we’re going to talk you through the best methods.
Related: 12 Things You Must Do When Running an SSD in Windows 10
1. Use The HDD Manufacturer’s Tools
Most major hard drive manufacturers provide free robust tools to monitor your hard drive health and performance. The first step to knowing which one to use is, of course, knowing the make of your hard drive.
If you know the make of your hard drive, you can skip this part. If you don’t, press the Win key, type “device manager” and click it when it appears in the search results.
In Device Manager unstack the “Disk drives” option and make a note of the model number of your hard drive. Next, type the model number into Google to bring up results that will show you the make of the hard drive.
After that, go to the manufacturer’s support page and search for their hard drive utility. To help you out, here are links to the relevant download pages of some of the biggest hard drive brands:
Each of these tools functions a little differently, but most importantly, each one has diagnostic features that let you test your hard drive health.
2. Windows CHKDSK Tool
Windows CHKDSK Tool is a built-in Windows tool that will scan your disk to find system errors and bad sectors and show if there are any problems with your hard disk. It will both scan and fix problems it can fix and will let you know if there is a bigger problem that it can’t fix. You can use this tool to both check hard disk health and fix bad sectors and errors if possible.
To use CHKDSK, right-click on the drive which you would like to check for errors, and select “Properties.” Then click on the “Tools” tab, and then click on the “Check now” button.
A dialog will open up with two options to fix errors and scan for bad sectors. You can select these options if you want to fix errors and bad sectors; otherwise you can just click on “Start” to get a basic report of hard disk problems (if there are any).
This tool is very basic and focuses on finding system errors and bad sectors. It will just let you know if there are any big problems and nothing more, so only use it as a basic hard disk checking and fixing tool.
Check Raid Array Health Windows
3. Use WMIC
WMIC is a command-line interface that lets you perform many administrative tasks, including checking hard disk health. It uses the S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) feature of hard disks to see status and provide a simple conclusion, like “OK” or “Pred Fail,” etc. It is still a very basic command that offers very little information, but it is quick and a built-in feature of Windows.
To check a hard disk with WMIC, press the Win + R buttons to open the Run dialog. Type cmd and click “OK” to open the Windows command prompt.
Type
and hit Enter. When the WMI interface is ready, type
and press Enter again. You will see the status of your hard disk after a short delay.
4. Use a Third-Party Hard Disk Health Checking Tool
You can also use a third-party hard disk health checking tool that will offer much more information than just good or bad status. These tools use the same “S.M.A.R.T” feature of hard disks to fetch data, just like WMIC. However, they provide all the details to you, instead of just showing good or bad status.
CrystalDiskInfo
For this purpose, CrystalDiskInfo is a really simple, yet powerful, tool. It is a free-to-use tool that is extremely light and offers all the required information, such as temperature, health status, hard disk type and features, and other attributes like read/write error rate and spin-up time, etc.
The standard tool comes as a 4 MB .exe file, and its installer contains ads, so make sure you use the “Custom Installer” option and uncheck the side tool (ad). Once installed, all you need to do is launch the program, and you will see all the information about your hard disk(s) in the main interface. The tool will also check the hard disk health after every 10 minutes (by default) and alert you if there is anything wrong.
There are also other third-party hard disk health-checking tools like Hard Disk Sentinel and HDDScan. These are much more advanced with loads of extra features, but for an average user CrystalDiskInfo should work perfectly.
How To Check Raid Status Windows
Conclusion
You can use the above-mentioned tools to check hard disk health in your Windows PC. If you don’t need extra details, then the Windows built-in tools should work great. Otherwise, it is recommended to download a third-party hard disk health checking tool.
This article was first published in January 2016 and was updated in June 2018.
Image credit: Retrieve data and Repair Hard Disk by poylock19/Shutterstock
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