SMART for RAID0

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob Davis
  • Start date Start date
Bob Davis said:
Is there a program that will read S.M.A.R.T. info from a RAID0 array?
Click to expand...

Sure, any that you can find.
It's not the program, it's whether the RAID driver supports S.M.A.R.T.
 
Previously Bob Davis said:
Is there a program that will read S.M.A.R.T. info from a RAID0 array?
Click to expand...

Care to tell us what type (which controller or which software) of RAID0?

Arno
 
Your raid adapter has to support it. If so, either download the software
that manages the adapter (from the manuf. web site) or when you boot the
machine press the setup keys to get into the adapters setup, there may be an
option there to read smart errors. If it is a motherboard connected
straight to the drives, the same applies-either software from the manuf. web
page or boot to a setup mode and look for a way to read the errors.

I know early on, most raid cards didn't support smart for some reason. More
modern cards seem to have support for it.

--Dan
 
Sure, any that you can find.
It's not the program, it's whether the RAID driver supports S.M.A.R.T.
Click to expand...

I guess it's the ICH5R controller then, as no SMART software sees the RAID0
array. It did see a single drive when it was attached to the same
controller, however.
 
I guess it's the ICH5R controller then, as no SMART software sees the RAID0
array. It did see a single drive when it was attached to the same
controller, however.
Click to expand...

Without knowing much about your setup you could try Intel's "ICH5R
Serial ATA RAID Monitoring Utility" or future versions of the "Intel
Application Accelerator RAID Edition" or check with the manufacturer
(if other). Management functionality tends to be minimal or
non-existent on the low-end. I don't know what kind of luck you should
be expecting. If you are not intending to boot off the array you can
do the striping in the OS and should be able to use ordinary smart
tools.
 
I have a motherboard with the ICH5R controller. I also have the Application
Accelerator RAID edition installed so I just checked and sure enough, the
program will generate a report of your raid array and includes individual
drive status. The help file lists the possible status entries and one of
them is a SMART Event, of which I have none so far.

--Dan
 
Without knowing much about your setup you could try Intel's "ICH5R
Serial ATA RAID Monitoring Utility" or future versions of the "Intel
Application Accelerator RAID Edition" or check with the manufacturer
(if other).
Click to expand...

It's a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP rev. 1 mobo and I'm using the ICH5R RAID controller
with two striped 36gb Raptors in WinXP Pro. This array is the boot drive,
and I have one 160gb PATA on IDE1 as D:. S.M.A.R.T. works fine on the PATA
as it did with a single SATA before creating the array. The Monitoring
Utility appears to be only for Netware. Right?
Management functionality tends to be minimal or
non-existent on the low-end. I don't know what kind of luck you should
be expecting. If you are not intending to boot off the array you can
do the striping in the OS and should be able to use ordinary smart
tools.
Click to expand...

Frankly, I don't know how any software could monitor a RAID0 setup since
more than one drive is being seen by the OS as one.
 
It's a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP rev. 1 mobo and I'm using the ICH5R RAID controller
with two striped 36gb Raptors in WinXP Pro. This array is the boot drive,
and I have one 160gb PATA on IDE1 as D:. S.M.A.R.T. works fine on the PATA
as it did with a single SATA before creating the array. The Monitoring
Utility appears to be only for Netware. Right?
Click to expand...

It is available for other OS's but may not be what you need/compatible
with your board.
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/Product_Search.asp?Prod_nm=ICH5R
I have machines with ICH5R but don't use the onboard RAID so cannot
advise.
Frankly, I don't know how any software could monitor a RAID0 setup since
more than one drive is being seen by the OS as one.
Click to expand...

There is some smoke and mirror action going on but it's not so
unreasonable. Ordinarily you expect/need this kind of functionality
in a RAID controller's management software which would send you a page
or email or take some other automatic preventative action. With a
RAID 0 boot array, though, there is little you can do but crap your
pants cause it's so much work/downtime to take everything offline,
replace the drive(s), put everything online again, and verify the
integrity of data/or restoring corrupt/lost data as needed from
backup. I have no faith in SMART anyhow. I've just had too many
drives go screwy/become unusable while reporting healthy SMART status.

The Intel FAQ says the "Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition"
does/may not report SMART yet. You may want to try it, though, as
"dg" appears to have had luck.
 
Previously Bob Davis said:
Frankly, I don't know how any software could monitor a RAID0 setup since
more than one drive is being seen by the OS as one.
Click to expand...

Depends. Exaple: Linux software RAID combines the individual drives and
partitions into a new device. However the original drives and partitions
can still be accessed under their original device identifiers and can
be probed with a SMART utility. Any controller that hides the individual
disks form the OS has of course the limitation you state and will
require custom software or will not allow SMART monitoring at all.

Arno
 
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