*MegaRAID Storage Manager manual

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Technical Article | TA-20201014-TP-03 NVH Hardware | RAID Cards TKH Sense Server |

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The following article is an extract of the MegaRAID Storage Manager software manual. The full manual can be found on the LSI website (http://www.lsi.com/) or click here to go directly to the manual.

Rebuilding a Drive

If a drive in a redundant virtual drive (RAID 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, or 60) fails, the MegaRAID Storage Manager software automatically rebuilds the data on a hot spare drive to prevent data loss. The rebuild is a fully automatic process, so it is not necessary to issue a Rebuild command. You can monitor the progress of drive rebuilds in the Group ShowProgress window. To open this window, select Manage > Show Progress.

If a single drive in a RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, or RAID 50 virtual drive fails, the system is protected from data loss. A RAID 6 virtual drive can survive two failed drives. A RAID 60 virtual drive can survive two failed drives in each span in the drive group. Data loss is prevented by using parity data in RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 50, and RAID 60, and data redundancy in RAID 1 and RAID 10.

The failed drive must be replaced, and the data on the drive must be rebuilt on a new drive to restore the system to fault tolerance. You can choose to rebuild the data on the failed drive if the drive is still operational. If dedicated hot spares or global hot spare disks are available, the failed drive is rebuilt automatically without any user intervention.

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A red circle to the right of the drive icon ( ) indicates that a drive has failed. A yellow circle appears to the right of the icon of the virtual drive that uses this drive which indicates that the virtual drive is in a degraded state; the data is still safe, but data could be lost if another drive fails.

Follow these steps to rebuild a drive:

1. Right-click the icon of the failed drive, and select Rebuild.

2. Click Yes when the warning message appears. If the drive is still good, a rebuild starts. You can monitor the progress of the rebuild in the Group Show Progress window by selecting Manage > Show Progress. If the drive cannot be rebuilt, an error message appears. Continue with the next step.

3. Shut down the system, disconnect the power cord, and open the computer case.

4. Replace the failed drive with a new drive of equal capacity.

5. Close the computer case, reconnect the power cord, and restart the computer.

6. Restart the MegaRAID Storage Manager software.
   When the new drive spins up, the drive icon changes back to normal status, and the rebuild process begins automatically. You can monitor the progress of the rebuild in the Group Show Progress window by selecting Manage > Show Progress.

New Drives Attached to a MegaRAID Controller

When you insert a new drive on a MegaRAID system and if the inserted drive does not contain valid DDF metadata, the drive displays as JBOD for MegaRAID entry-level controllers, such as the SAS 9240-4i/8i. If the drive does contain valid DDF metadata, its drive state is Unconfigured Good.

A new drive in JBOD drive state is exposed to the host operating system as a stand-alone drive. Drives in JBOD drive state are not part of the RAID configuration because they do not have valid DDF records. The operating system can install and run anything on JBOD drives.

Automatic rebuilds always occur when the drive slot status changes, for example, when you insert a drive or remove a drive, so that a hot spare can be used. However, a new drive in JBOD drive state (without a valid DDF record), does not perform an automatic rebuild.

To start an automatic rebuild on the new JBOD drive, you have to change the drive state from JBOD to Unconfigured Good. (Rebuilds start on Unconfigured Good drives only.) After you set the drive state to Unconfigured Good, the drive state information always remains on the drive, and you can use the drive for configuration.

Making a Drive Offline or Missing

If a drive is currently part of a redundant configuration and you want to use it in another configuration, you can use the MegaRAID Storage Manager commands to remove the drive from the first configuration and change the drive state to Unconfigured Good.

ATTENTION
After you perform this procedure, all data on that drive is lost.

To remove the drive from the configuration without harming the data on the virtual drive, follow these steps:

1. In the MegaRAID Storage Manager window, select Go To > Physical Drive > Make Drive Offline. The drive status changes to Offline.

2. Select Go To > Physical Drive > Mark Drive as Missing.

The drive status changes to Unconfigured Good.

ATTENTION
After you perform this step, the data on this drive is no longer valid.

1. If necessary, create a hot spare drive for the virtual drive from which you have removed the drive.
   When a hot spare is available, the data on the virtual drive is rebuilt. You can now use the removed drive for another configuration.

ATTENTION
If the MegaRAID Storage Manager software detects that a drive in a virtual drive has failed, it makes the drive offline. If this situation occurs, you must remove the drive and replace it. You cannot make the drive usable for another configuration by using the Mark physical disk as missing command and the Rescan commands.

Removing a Drive

You may sometimes need to remove a non-failed drive that is connected to the controller. For example, you may need to replace the drive with a larger drive. Follow these steps to remove a drive safely:

1. Click the icon of the drive in the left panel, and click the Operations tab in the right panel.

2. Select Prepare for Removal, and click Go.

3. Wait until the drive spins down and remove it.

If you change your mind, select Undo Prepare for Removal, and click Go.

Upgrading Firmware

The MegaRAID Storage Manager software enables you to easily upgrade the controller firmware.

To avoid data loss because of dirty cache on the controller, the utility forces the virtual disks into Write Through mode after a firmware upgrade. It is in this mode until the server reboots. In Write Through mode, the controller sends a data transfer completion signal to the host when the disk subsystem has received all of the data in a transaction. This way, in case of a power outage, the controller does not discard the dirty cache.

Follow these steps to upgrade the firmware:

1. In the left panel of the MegaRAID Storage Manager window, click the icon of the controller you want to upgrade.

2. In the MegaRAID Storage Manager window, select Go To > Controller > Update Controller Firmware.

3. Click Browse to locate the .rom update file, as shown in the following figure.

1. After you locate the file, click Open.
   The MegaRAID Storage Manager software displays the version of the existing firmware.

2. When you are prompted to indicate whether you want to upgrade the firmware, click Yes.
A progress bar appears along with messages that indicate when an image opens and when an image downloads.

3. After an image has been downloaded and if Online Firmware Update is supported on the controller, a confirmation message box appears that asks for your confirmation.

NOTE
If Online Firmware Update is not supported on the controller, the confirmation message box does not appear. Instead, after an image is downloaded, a message appears that indicates an image is being flashed. The controller is updated with the new firmware code contained in the.rom file. Reboot the system after the new firmware is flashed. The new firmware does not take effect until reboot.

If you click Yes in the confirmation message box, the progress bar continues with a message that indicates that an image is being flashed.

After the progress bar disappears, either of the following two messages appear in a message box.

If this message appears, reboot your system.

If this message appears, the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu window reappears. A Restart Started event appears in the log (at the bottom of the MegaRAID Storage Manager main menu window) and a progress bar appears that states Controller reset is in progress.

After the controller reset process is completed, the controller is updated with the new firmware code contained in the.rom file.

NOTE
While performing the Online Firmware Update method, there is a small window of time where the IOs are held and the controller is automatically reset. This results in a timeout to your virtualized environments and causes I/O errors. Choose the traditional Firmware update method to avoid the controller reset.