Adaptec hardware RAID controller

In this article, you will learn how to work with Adaptec hardware RAID controller.

How to read the status of the hardware-based RAID

To read the status of the Adaptec RAID Controller, the Adaptec command-line tool arcconf must be installed.

You can get the current status of the RAID by using the following command:

arcconf GETCONFIG 1 LD

Example RAID 1:

Controllers found: 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device number 0
   Logical device name                      :
   RAID level                               : 1
   Status of logical device                 : Optimal
   Size                                     : 714742 MB
   Read-cache mode                          : Enabled
   MaxIQ preferred cache setting            : Enabled
   MaxIQ cache setting                      : Disabled
   Write-cache mode                         : Enabled (write-back)
   Write-cache setting                      : Enabled (write-back)
   Partitioned                              : Yes
   Protected by Hot-Spare                   : No
   Bootable                                 : Yes
   Failed stripes                           : No
   Power settings                           : Disabled
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Logical device segment information
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Segment 0                                : Present (0,0) S13UJ1DPB05048
   Segment 1                                : Present (0,1) S13UJ1DQ201027

You can get the status of the drives by using the following command:

arcconf GETCONFIG 1 PD

As this command also generates a quantity of useless information, it is advisable to filter the output. For example, you can use:

arcconf getconfig 1 pd|egrep "Device #|State\>|Reported Location|Reported Channel|S.M.A.R.T. warnings|Model|Serial number"

How to set up a hardware-based RAID

Regardless of whether you just need to make changes to the mode of an existing RAID or if you need to set up a new RAID (after installing a controller), the first thing you should do is to delete the drives from their logical drives:

arcconf DELETE <Controller#> LOGICALDRIVE <ld#>

for example:

arcconf DELETE 1 LOGICALDRIVE 0

or all:

arcconf DELETE 1 LOGICALDRIVE ALL

Now you can set up a new RAID. For this, the state of your disks has to be Ready. If your disks are still in the Raw (Pass Through) state, you need to initialize the disks:

Syntax:

arcconf TASK START <Controller#> DEVICE <Channel# ID#> INITIALIZE

To initialize all of your disks which are connected to the RAID controller at once, you can use ALL:

arcconf TASK START 1 DEVICE ALL INITIALIZE

Syntax:

arcconf CREATE <Controller#> LOGICALDRIVE [Options] <Size> <RAID#> <Channel# ID#> [Channel# ID#]

• Create RAID 0 (maximum size, drives on Channel 0, Port 0 and 1, no confirmation):

  arcconf CREATE 1 LOGICALDRIVE MAX 0 0 0 0 1 noprompt

• Create RAID 1 (maximum size, drives on Channel 0, Port 0 and 1, no confirmation):

  arcconf CREATE 1 LOGICALDRIVE MAX 1 0 0 0 1 noprompt

• Create RAID 5 (maximum size, drives on Channel 0, Port 0, 1 and 2, no confirmation):

  arcconf CREATE 1 LOGICALDRIVE MAX 5 0 0 0 1 0 2 noprompt

• Create RAID 10 (maximum size, drives on Channel 0, Port 0, 1, 2 and 3, no confirmation):

  arcconf CREATE 1 LOGICALDRIVE MAX 10 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 noprompt

• Create RAID 6 (maximum size, drives on Channel 0, Slot 0 – 14, no confirmation):

  arcconf CREATE 1 LOGICALDRIVE MAX 6 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7 0 8 0 9 0 10 0 11 0 12 0 13 0 14 0 15 0 16 0 17 0 18 noprompt

• JBOD (single drive on Channel 0, Port 2):

  arcconf CREATE 1 JBOD 0 2 noprompt

How to start a REBUILD using arcconf with a DEGRADED RAID

First, check to see if all the drives are recognized:

arcconf GETCONFIG 1 PD

If they are not, you can launch a manual rescan:

arcconf RESCAN 1

The status of the RAID should then be shown as being degraded:

root@rescue ~ # arcconf getconfig 1 ld
Controllers found: 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device number 0
   Logical device name                      : Device 0
   RAID level                               : 1
   Status of logical device                 : Degraded
   Size                                     : 1428470 MB
   Read-cache mode                          : Enabled
   Write-cache mode                         : Enabled (write-back)
   Write-cache setting                      : Enabled (write-back)
   Partitioned                              : No
   Protected by Hot-Spare                   : No
   Bootable                                 : Yes
   Failed stripes                           : No
   Power settings                           : Disabled
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Logical device segment information
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Segment 0                                : Inconsistent (0,0)  9VS38R1D
   Segment 1                                : Present (0,1)       9VS38RKE

Now it may be necessary to delete the metadata:

arcconf TASK START 1 DEVICE 0 0 CLEAR

Since automatic failover mode is enabled, the rebuild should have already started. If it has not, the drive is manually added to the RAID as a hot spare. The rebuild starts automatically:

arcconf SETSTATE 1 DEVICE 0 0 HSP LOGICALDRIVE 0

After a RAID rebuild on a hot spare drive, the drive remains as a hot spare. After replacing the defective drive, data automatically migrates back. It is also possible to remove a hot spare designation via arcconf and to mark the new replacement drive as a new hot spare.

Here’s an example on how to set Device 0;0 on Controller 1 from hot spare to ready:

arcconf setstate 1 device 0 0 rdy

How to read the SMART values of the drive in RAID

The sg module helps to access the physical drives behind the controller, for example, for the first drive:

smartctl -d sat -a /dev/sg1

On a Smart Raid Controller, you can check the SMART values with the following command.

smartctl -d cciss,0 -i /dev/sg0

With AACRAID:

smartctl -d aacraid,0,0,0 -i /dev/sg0

Depending on the operating system, you may need to upgrade the smartmontools or the kernel.

How to restore a faulty array

If an array is detected, but has the status offline or failed, it is possible to force the array to be activated or to be recreated — and to not lose data. However, there is no guarantee that you will be able to recover the data. Data loss may still occur. You can find more information at: Ask Adaptec

It is possible in some circumstances to bring an array back online using the following command:

arcconf SETSTATE <Controller#> LOGICALDRIVE <LD#> OPTIMAL [ADVANCED <option>] [noprompt]

An example for the first array on the first controller would be:

arcconf SETSTATE 1 LOGICALDRIVE 0 OPTIMAL ADVANCED nocheck noprompt

Backing up and restoring the configuration of the controller

To save the configuration of the controller and all arrays:

arcconf saveconfig config.xml

This command will save the config to /var/log/config.xml.

To restore the configuration of the controller:

arcconf playconfig /path/to/config.xml