Rebuilding a hardware raid array?

[xenon]

A bit niche. Could do with a couple of pointers if anyone has dealt with this.

I have tried to register on HP forum to ask but there's some sort of site error.

I have an old HP Gen 8 Prolliant Microserver. Has a 4TB raid 1 array (4 x 2TB disks.) The raid array shows as in a degraded state when looking at the built in firmware iLo thing. (I told you this was niche.)

It says the physical disks are OK but the problem is with the logical array.

OK. SO reboot, get a message during boot process from the HP smart array thing, saying press F1 to try for automatic data recovery, i.e. rebuilt the array or F2 to carry on as normal.

I press F1. My question is...

How do I know it's rebuilding the array? As after pressing F1 it just continues to boot off the OS. Which is on a usbstick.

The other day, I tried the same as above but with the usb stick removed. It just went into a boot loop. It's as if F1 isn't doing anything.

TLDR

When rebuilding a hardware raid array, does it just happen in the background and otherwise boot a system as normal?

I'm aware 4TB rebuild can take a couple of days but how do I know it's even happening.

 

[2hats]

HP provide OS based utilities to query and manage the smart arrays (better featured than iLO). The name varies with the generation of server & controller (am travelling right now so can't check mine but the name of the suite changed between the gen 8/10 and gen 11 hardware - shipping different controller chipsets). You should be able to find the s/w with a well tuned google (it's free and doesn't need a current licence).

PS 4TB should rebuild faster than that - my half PB arrays only take about that long to rebuild (unless the user community are really thrashing them).

 

[2hats]

Ah, maybe look for hpacucli, hpssacli or storcli (this is for the *nix-verse, no idea what they would be in 'doze land).

 

[A380]

Have you tried turning it off, and then on again?

 

[xenon]

Ah, maybe look for hpacucli, hpssacli or storcli (this is for the *nix-verse, no idea what they would be in 'doze land).

Thanks. I'd seen ACU refered to in various web searches but thought it some enterprise tool. Have managed to post a thread on HP forums too now.

I may be able to create a live linux usb and use it from there.

 

[xenon]

Have you tried turning it off, and then on again?

Don't get technical.

 

[2hats]

Thanks. I'd seen ACU refered to in various web searches but thought it some enterprise tool. Have managed to post a thread on HP forums too now.

I may be able to create a live linux usb and use it from there.

There should be Windows versions of the same tools, if that's what you are looking for (it's just that I've never used them). The OS tools let you admin & monitor the underlying disks and arrays whilst the OS is up and running (of course).

 

[xenon]

There should be Windows versions of the same tools, if that's what you are looking for (it's just that I've never used them). The OS tools let you admin & monitor the underlying disks and arrays whilst the OS is up and running (of course).

To complicate things, ha, why not, the OS booting off the usb stick is Vmware Esxi. There are Linux VMs on the HDs. I wonder if I can get one of those to boot, if I can use HPacucli from one of those. Or the fact it's running off VMware will obscure the access to the underlying disk system.

That would be a bit easier than trying to create a live linux distro ATM.

I'm minded to leave it doing whatever it's doing for a day then try one or the other. It's for personal use, so no one's screaming at me...

 

[2hats]

Sorry, can't help you there. I run on the bare metal.

 

[xenon]

SO looks possible to install HPacucli in VMware esxi, the hypervisor itself.

However, I can't log into Esxi as root using SSH. Can on web interface as that's how I manage it. Presumably root account is blocked over SSH for security reasons.

Searching for how to add a user in the Esxi 6.0 webgui finds instructions but screenshot apparently shows a page that is different to the one I get. Security and users / add user. I get no add user or any other options under security and users page...


Anyway too boring, I'll bump this if I ever get it fixed...