Checking storage status - Physical Disks & Virtual Disks - using OMSA on a Linux Server

Due to the nature of hardware, it is good practice to regularly check the status of your server’s hardware, and specifically to check the status of the storage within the server for any errors. Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application allows you to check the current status of each RAID array (or Virtual Disk) configured on your server and the status of each physical drive.

First, you should check the status of each Virtual Disk (VD). To do this, run the following commands:

Command 1
Command Description	Run the following command to list all the Virtual Disks configured within this server. You also will be presented with the VDs’ details and statuses.
Command	omreport storage vdisk
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command

You will now be presented with a list of Virtual Disks configured within the server, their details, their current status and their ID number. In my example below, you can see I have one RAID array which is degraded.

You should now know if there is an error with any of the RAID arrays (or VDs) within the chassis. If there is an error with an array, this is normally caused by a Physical Disk (PD) within this array also having an error, or failing. However, other problems can occur, which can cause an error with a Virtual Disk.

If there is an error with a Virtual Disk or not, you should also check the status of all the Physical Disks within the server. To do this, you first need to identify how many RAID controllers are within this server and the ID number of these RAID controllers. Once you have identified this information, you can use the RAID controllers’ ID number(s) to list all the physical disks connected to these controllers.

Run the following two commands; using the ID number(s) from Command 2 below, to fill in the blank in command 3. Run command 3 once for each controller:

Command 2
Command Description	The following command lists all the RAID controllers within the chassis. You need this information (identified in my results example, with a red box) for command 3.
Command	omreport storage controller
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command
Command 3
Command Description	Run the following command, using the controller’s ID number from Command 2, to list all the Physical Disks within this server. You will also be able to see their details and statuses.
Command	omreport storage pdisk controller=[insert controller number]
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command

Repeat Command 3 for every controller found in the results of Command 2.

In my example above, and with most of our dedicated servers we provide, there is normally only one controller with an ID of 0; however, some servers maybe configured with more than one. Once you have run the above two commands (for every controller within the chassis), you will have a clear idea of the status of every physical disk within the chassis, and you should be able to identify if any drives currently have an error. In my example below, you can see drive 0:1:3 currently has a critical error, and its state is removed.

At this point, it is good to know what the configuration of your server should be, especially related to RAID arrays and disk configuration. If a drive completely fails, it can sometimes not show in OMSA at all, opposed to showing as having an error. As an example, the server below is meant to have 4x Physical Disks attached to the RAID controller, however, only 3 are listed. This is normally caused by a drive completely failing; causing it to disappear from the monitoring. The monitoring may not show this, but by comparing your knowledge of the server’s configuration to what components are currently listed, you can see a drive is missing.

Once you have a list of each physical drives configured within the server, you should be able to identify any drives with any errors or if any drives are missing from the OMSA monitoring. You can now use this information to inform your decision on what to do next.

If you wish to have a drive replaced, please see the section on our FAQ on how to go about getting a technician to perform this action, using the information form OMSA. If you do wish for a drive to be replaced, you will need to provide the details found on the physical drive’s information page, as shown in the examples above. This will aid the on-site technician in identifying the faulty drive, during the drive swap process.

If you have any further questions about OMSA, please look through our FAQ section. If our FAQ page does not have the answer, please feel free to raise a support ticket, and we will be happy to help.