How do I use the RAID Configuration Menu of my 11th generation Dell PowerEdge server (R_10), with a H310 RAID controller, to check my server’s Storage status?

To check the RAID Configuration Menu (or BIOS menu) of an 11th generation Dell EMC PowerEdge server (e.g. R210, R210 II, R310, R410), when it has a H310 raid controller installed, you should first have either a KVMoIP device attached to the server or a remote console with the server opened. Please see our FAQ section on how to request a KVM or how to open an iDRAC remote console. Once you have either a KVM device or a remote console open, you now need to reboot the server. Please note that this means that the server and everything it is currently hosting will go offline, and will remain offline throughout the duration of this process. Also, the decision to reboot the server must be your own; iomart and any company within the iomart group are not responsible for any effects rebooting your server may have.

Once you have rebooted your server, you need to wait for the option to enter the RAID configuration menu to appear; then press Ctrl+R to enter it. Please note, depending on the BIOS settings of your server, your screen may look slightly different to the one below.

Once you have pressed Ctrl+R at the prompt and waited a minute or two, the RAID BIOS Configuration Utility menu will appear. To check the status of the server’s storage, you should check both the status of the Virtual Disks and the status of the Physical Disks. First, we’ll check the Virtual Disks’ health, to check the status of any RAID arrays configured within the server.

To do this you need to use the arrow keys to highlight the Virtual Disk (VD) you wish to check. Once the VD is highlighted, the status and details of this Virtual Disk will appear on the right. You should repeat this action for every Virtual Disk configured on the RAID controller.

In my examples above, you can see that one Virtual Disk’s status is ‘Optimal’, meaning that there are no errors with this Virtual Disk, and one has a status of ‘Degraded’, meaning that there is an error with this Virtual Disk.

On this screen you can also choose to see a list of the physical drives configured within this array. To do this, highlight the Physical Disks option under the VD name, then press the right arrow key to bring up the list of Physical Disks configured within this Virtual Disk. If you have come across a Virtual Disk with an error, you should now do this to see the status of the drives. In my example below, you can see that on drive (05) is currently offline.

If you do come across a drive with an error, you will need to check the details of this drive within the PD Mgmt (Physical Disk Management) page. To navigate to this page, press Ctrl+N. You will be now be a on a screen which displays all the physical drives’ details; including their current states and all the details needed by our technicians to replace a failed drive. If you do identify a drive with an error and wish for it to be replaced, you will need to supply the following information about the failed drive to our technicians, in a support ticket, so that our technicians can identify the drive correctly:

1. Disk ID

2. Drive Type

3. Capacity

4. Product ID

You can use this current page to find this information. You can also supply a screenshot of this page; as our technicians can use this information to help them locate the correct drive.

If you wish for a drive to be replaced, you may also set the drive bay to blink using this page. Setting the drive bay to blink will set the LED lights on front of the drive’s caddy to blink, allowing the local technicians to identify the drive bay with greater ease. To do this, press F2 while the drive you wish to set to blink is highlighted, then highlight LED Blinking and press the right arrow key. You can then start the blinking. Once the technicians have completed the drive swap, you can use this same process, but selecting it to stop blinking, to stop the drive bay from blinking; to make sure the drive bay is no longer blinking if you need other drives replacing in future. If you do set the drive bay to blink, please let our technicians know in the support ticket. Please note, non-hotswap chassis will not let you set the drives to blink, as there are no LEDs.

Once you have supplied the above information and set the drive bay to blink (if possible), our support team will be happy to help get your drive replaced.

If you did not encounter any drive issues through the Virtual Disks, you should also check the Physical Disks directly, by navigating to the PD Mgmt page, as outlined above.

If you have any more questions about the storage of your server, or your RAID BIOS menu, please read through our FAQ section or raise a support ticket, and we will be happy to help.