How do I check the status of my drives and RAID array through the RAID BIOS?

Sadly, on occasion, errors can occur with the storage components of a server. As we know how frustrating this can be, this FAQ section has been created to help our client’s investigate their server’s storage through their server’s RAID BIOS.

If you believe an error has occurred with either a server’s RAID array or with a server’s physical drives, when a RAID controller is present within the server, one way you can check the status of a server’s storage is through the server’s RAID BIOS menu. You can use the server’s RAID BIOS to identify any failed drives and identify the details required to have them replaced.

Checking a server’s RAID BIOS involves rebooting a server while accessing it through either a KVMoIP device or while having a remote management’s virtual/remote console open, then accessing the RAID controller’s BIOS menu while the server goes through POST. This does require the server and anything the server is hosting to be offline during the entire process. Due to this, it is normally preferable for clients to use either Remote Management software or monitoring tools configured on the server’s operating system to identify any issues with a server’s storage; however, if this not possible then you may have to use the server’s RAID BIOS.

How to boot into a server’s RAID controller’s BIOS menu and check the drives’ and arrays’ health depends on the model of your server and the model of the RAID controller it is using. Below, you will see some examples of how to check the RAID BIOS for some of our combinations of RAID controllers and server models. If your server and RAID controller are not listed below, you can either find material online to help you perform this action, or raise a support ticket and a member of our team will be happy to discuss what we can do to help.

If you are un-sure what model your server and RAID controller is, please see below how to use MyServers to identify this.