Q01How do I identify a failed drive in my dedicated server?
As a hosting provider we know that it can be very frustrating for our customers when a drive fails. As a managed infrastructure service provider we will always replace any failed drive, free of charge, as soon as we are alerted to a failed drive and provided its details.
If you believe a hard drive has failed on your server, you will first need to identify which physical drive has failed, before we can proceed with replacing it. There are several ways in which you can identify which drive has failed and to identify the information required to have it replaced. Which method is best for you depends on your server’s current setup. Below are some examples; please feel free to read through them all and decide which method is best for you.
Q02RAID Controller’s Menu
One way to identify a failed drive and its details would be through your server’s RAID BIOS. To access your RAID BIOS, you would first require either remote management or a KVMoIP session, then you would need to re-boot your server, then boot into the servers RAID controller / UEFI BIOS, and then check the status and details of the physical drives. Exactly how you do this is dependent on the make and model of your server and RAID controller. Please use our FAQ section to find some examples on how to do this.
The benefits of this method is that your server only needs to have been configure with a RAID controller. However, this method does require downtime throughout the entire process. As this method requires downtime, our client’s often prefer to use other methods that do not require any downtime.
The above method only applies if your drives are attached to a RAID controller card; which is now the set-up for almost all of our dedicated servers. If your drives are not connected to the RAID controller, you will need to check through the chassis’ BIOS screen instead.
Q03Remote Management
Another way in which you can check for a failed drive and check the drive’s details is through some forms of OOB Remote Management’s control panel.
Most new remote management’s control panel versions will allow you to monitor the RAID array and drive health; while showing you any failed drives and the physical drive’s details. Some older forms of OOB control panels, however, will not allow you to do this.
The benefits of this options is that it allows you to check the drive health and the drive’s details without any downtime. However, the remote management will have to have been already setup on the server to use it. We can add remote management at after a server is activated; but this will require downtime.
Q04Third Party Software
The last option is to install third party software capable of monitoring your server’s storage, onto your server’s operating system.
There is a wide variety of monitoring software that you can download. Which one would be best for your server depends on your server’s operating system, which RAID controller you server is using, and what the make and model of you server is. You can download these through third parties; some free of charge and some at a cost. A populate monitoring software for Dell PowerEdge server is their OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) software.
The benefit of using a third party piece of software, like OMSA, is that they do not require any downtime to identify a failed drive and its details. The down side to these third party softwares are that they require the server to be online and remotely accessible. Also, as they are created by third parties, you must be careful about the security of these pieces of software.
You should be able to use one of the above three methods to identify any failed drives and these drives’ details (e.g. serial number, physical drive bay number, capacity, etc.). When you have identified all of these details, please raise a ticket through your MyServers control panel, and a member of our team will be happy to help.
Please feel free to use our FAQ for examples on how to use the above methods, to identify a failed drive and its details.
We would suggest always taking a full back-up of any data on your server before we perform any work, to a storage/backup device external to the server, as there is always a risk of data loss.
If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch.