Monitoring My Devices & Checking Hardware Status

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.

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.

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.

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.

OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) is a systems management product, provided by Dell EMC, which can be installed on supported Dell PowerEdge servers. It provides the user with a number of network management and systems management applications.

The OMSA product is accessible through either a web browser-based GUI or through a command line interface via the Operating System, depending on the Operating System installed on the server. For Linux based operating systems, OMSA is accessed through the command line interface of the server’s operating system. With the Windows Server operating systems, OMSA is accessed through the server’s Operating System’s web browser. For VMware ESXI based operating systems, OMSA is accessed through a web browser based GUI remotely, from your home or work computer, using SSH.

If your server is installed with either a Windows or Linux OS, the server’s operating system does not have to be accessible remotely, directly; as you can use a KVMoIP / iDRAC to access the server and then OMSA, as long as the server is booted into a functioning operating system. For an ESXI server, however, you must be able to SSH into the server to access OMSA.

We encourage our clients to download and use OMSA on their Dell servers, as it allows the user to check the status of their hardware, which means that it can be used to identify hardware related issues and provides the necessary information to have this hardware replaced.

OMSA compatibility is based on the Dell PowerEdge server’s generation and the version of Operating Sytem installed onto the server. See the below tables to identify what generation of Dell PowerEdge servers Vs. what Operating System OMSA supports.

Windows Server:

Dell PowerEdge Generation	Compatible with Windows Server 2012 & 2012 R2	Compatible with Windows Server 2016
Dell PowerEdge 11th Gen (R_10)	Yes	Not Supported*
Dell PowerEdge 12th Gen (R_20)	Yes	Yes
Dell PowerEdge 13th Gen (R_30)	Yes	Yes
* There is no officially supported version of OMSA for Windows Server 2016 for 11th Gen servers. However, you may be able to install the 12th generation version of OMSA for Windows 2016 onto a 11th Gen server. Please note, compatibility issues may arise from doing this. Also, iomart (and any company within the iomart group) are not responsible for any issues caused by performing this action, and Dell EMC would advise not to perform this action.

Linux:

Compatibility with OS	Compatible with Dell PE 11th Gen (R_10)	Compatible with Dell PE 12th Gen (R_20)	Compatible with Dell PE 13th Gen (R_30)
CentOS 6	Yes	Yes	Yes
CentOS 7	Yes (No*)	Yes	Yes
Ubuntu 14	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ubuntu 16	Yes	Yes	Yes
Debian 7	Yes	Yes	Yes
Debian 8	Yes	Yes	Yes
Debian 9	Not Supported**	Not Supported**	Not Supported**
*OMSA is not compatible with CentOS 7 on a Dell PE R210 II chassis.
** There is no officially supported version of OMSA for Debian 9. However, using the guide below, you are able to download the Debian 8 version of OMSA onto a Debian 9 OS. Please note, compatibility issues may arise from doing this. Also, iomart (and any company within the iomart group) are not responsible for any issues caused by performing this action, and Dell EMC would advise not to do perform this action.

VMware ESXI:

Compatibility with OS	Compatible with Dell PE 11th Gen (R_10)	Compatible with Dell PE 12th Gen (R_20)	Compatible with Dell PE 13th Gen (R_30)
ESXI 5.0	Yes	No	No
ESXI 5.1	Yes	Yes	No
ESXI 5.5	Yes	Yes	Yes
ESXI 6.0	No	Yes	Yes
ESXI 6.5	No	Yes	Yes

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.

Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application is a free tool which Dell provide, enabling Dell PowerEdge users to have greater control over their server remotely. OMSA is downloadable through Dell’s support website and is compatible with most Operating Systems and with most PowerEdge chassis. OMSA compatibility is based on the Dell PowerEdge server’s generation and the version of Linux installed onto the server. See below to find what generation of Dell PowerEdge servers Vs. what Operating System OMSA supports.

Compatibility with OS	Compatible with Dell PE 11th Gen (R_10)	Compatible with Dell PE 12th Gen (R_20)	Compatible with Dell PE 13th Gen (R_30)
CentOS 6	Yes	Yes	Yes
CentOS 7	Yes (No*)	Yes	Yes
Ubuntu 14	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ubuntu 16	Yes	Yes	Yes
Debian 7	Yes	Yes	Yes
Debian 8	Yes	Yes	Yes
Debian 9	Not Supported**	Not Supported**	Not Supported**
* OMSA is not compatible with CentOS 7 on a Dell PE R210 II chassis.
** There is no officially supported version of OMSA for Debian 9. However, using the guide below, you are able to download the Debian 8 version of OMSA onto a Debian 9 OS. Please note, compatibility issues may arise from doing this. Also, iomart (or any company within the iomart group) are not responsible for any issues caused by performing this action, and Dell EMC would advise not to perform this task.

Please note that OpenManage Server Administrator is a free piece of software supplied by Dell EMC. As such, iomart (and any company within the iomart group; including RapidSwitch and Redstation) are not responsible for this software, nor are they responsible for any effects downloading, installing or using this software may have on your platform. We can only advise you to use OMSA and provide you with advice on how to do so; the choice to download, install and use the software must be your own. Also, as a managed infrastructure provider, we do not officially support OMSA; as such we will not be able to install, use or configure this software.

How you install OMSA onto a Linux server depends on the version of Linux you are using. Please see below how to install OSMA for each version of Linux (which we install and which is supported by OMSA).

Downloading and installing OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) onto a CentOS 6 or CentOS 7 server involves issuing commands which download the necessary files, start and then enable the OMSA services.

First, you need to log into the server’s root account. Once you are logged in, to install OMSA onto your CentOS server, please issue the following commands one after the other, waiting for each task to complete before proceeding with the next command:

Command 1
Command Description	Issue the following command to download and install the Dell Repository to your server.
Command	wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/bootstrap.cgi | bash
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Command 2
Command Description	Issue the following command to install the base utilities and storage
Command	yum install srvadmin-base srvadmin-storageservices -y
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Command 3
Command Description	Issue the following command to start the OMSA service
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh start
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Command 4
Command Description	Run this command to enable the OMSA services
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh enable
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Dell EMC’s OpenManage System will now be installed on your server. You can then use this software to manage and monitor the hardware within this server. Before you can access and use OMSA, you will have to logout of the server and close any SSH shell, and then re-login.

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.

Downloading OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) onto a server with Ubuntu 14 installed involves issuing commands which download the necessary repository files and keys, install the required utilities, then start and enable the OMSA services.

First, you need to log into the server’s root account. Once you are logged in, to install OMSA onto your Ubuntu 14 server, please issue the following commands one after the after, waiting for each task to complete before proceeding with the next command:

Command 1
Command Description	Issue this command to download and create the repository file
Command	echo 'deb http://linux.dell.com/repo/community/ubuntu trusty openmanage' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linux.dell.com.sources.list (Please note that each command is one line)
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Command 2
Command Description	Issue this command to download the repository key
Command	gpg --keyserver hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-key 1285491434D8786F
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Command 3
Command Description	Run this command to import the key into APT
Command	gpg -a --export 1285491434D8786F | apt-key add -
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Command 4
Command Description	Run this command to let the APT know there’s a new repository.
Command	apt update -y
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Command 5
Command Description	Issue this command to install the required utilities
Command	apt install srvadmin-base srvadmin-omcommon srvadmin-storageservices -y
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Command 6
Command Description	Issue the following command to start the OMSA service
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh start
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Command 7
Command Description	Run the following command to enable the OMSA service
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh enable
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Dell EMC’s OpenManage System will now be installed on your server. You can then use this software to manage and monitor the hardware within this server. Before you can access and use OMSA, you will have to logout of the server and close any SSH shell, and then re-login.

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.

Downloading OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) onto a server with Ubuntu 16 installed involves issuing commands which download the necessary repository files and keys, installing the required utilities, then starting and enabling the OMSA services.

First, you need to log into the server’s root account (or an account that is a member of sudoers). Once you are logged in, to install OMSA onto your Ubuntu 16 server, please issue the following commands one after the other, waiting for each task to complete:

Command 1
Command Description	Issue this command to download and create the repository file.
Command	echo 'deb http://linux.dell.com/repo/community/ubuntu xenial openmanage/840' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linux.dell.com.sources.list (please note that each command is one line)
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Command 2
Command Description	Issue this command to download the repository key.
Command	gpg --keyserver hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-key 1285491434D8786F
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Command 3
Command Description	Run this command to import the key into APT.
Command	gpg -a --export 1285491434D8786F | apt-key add -
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Command 4
Command Description	Run this coomand to let the APT kknow there’s a new repository.
Command	apt update -y
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Command 5
Command Description	Issue this command to install the required utilities.
Command	apt install srvadmin-base srvadmin-omcommon srvadmin-storageservices -y
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Command 6
Command Description	Issue the following command to start the OMSA service.
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh start
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Command 7
Command Description	Run the following command to enable the OMSA service.
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh enable
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Dell EMC’s OpenManage System will now be installed on your server. You can then use this software to manage and monitor the hardware within this server. Before you can access and use OMSA, you will have to logout of the server and close any SSH shell, and then re-login.

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.

Downloading OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) onto a server with Debian 7 installed, involves issue commands which download the necessary repository files and keys, installing the required utilities, then starting and enabling the OMSA services.

First, you need to log into the server’s root account. Once you are logged in, to install OMSA onto your Debian 7 server, please issue the following commands one after the after, waiting for each task to complete:

Command 1
Command Description	Issue this command to download and create the repository file.
Command	echo 'deb http://linux.dell.com/repo/community/debian wheezy openmanage' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linux.dell.com.sources.list (each command is one line)
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Command 2
Command Description	Issue this command to download the repository key.
Command	gpg --keyserver hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-key 1285491434D8786F
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Command 3
Command Description	Run this command to import the key into APT.
Command	gpg -a --export 1285491434D8786F | apt-key add -
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Command 4
Command Description	Run this coomand to let the APT know there’s a new repository.
Command	apt-get update -y
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Command 5
Command Description	Issue this command to install the required utilities.
Command	apt-get install srvadmin-base srvadmin-omcommon srvadmin-storageservices –y
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Command 6
Command Description	Issue the following command to start the OMSA service.
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh start
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Command 7
Command Description	Run the following command to enable the OMSA service.
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh enable
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Dell EMC’s OpenManage System will now be installed on your server. You can then use this software to manage and monitor the hardware within this server. Before you can access and use OMSA, you will have to logout of the server and close any SSH shell, and then re-login.

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.

Downloading OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) onto a server with Debian 8 installed, involves issue commands which download the necessary repository files and keys, install the required utilities, then start and enable the OMSA services.

First, you need to log into the server’s root account. Once you are logged in, to install OMSA onto your Debian 8 server, please issue the following commands one after the after, waiting for each task to complete before proceeding:

Command 1
Command Description	Issue this command to download and create the repository file.
Command	echo 'deb http://linux.dell.com/repo/community/debian jessie openmanage' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linux.dell.com.sources.list (Each command is one line)
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Command 2
Command Description	Issue this command to download the repository key.
Command	gpg --keyserver hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-key 1285491434D8786F
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Command 3
Command Description	Run this command to import the key into APT.
Command	gpg -a --export 1285491434D8786F | apt-key add -
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Command 4
Command Description	Run this coomand to let the APT kknow there’s a new repository.
Command	apt-get update -y
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Command 5
Command Description	Issue this command to install the required utilities.
Command	apt-get install srvadmin-base srvadmin-omcommon srvadmin-storageservices -y
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Command 6
Command Description	Issue the following command to start the OMSA service.
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh start
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Command 7
Command Description	Run the following command to enable the OMSA service.
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh enable
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Dell EMC’s OpenManage System will now be installed on your server. You can then use this software to manage and monitor the hardware within this server. Before you can access and use OMSA, you will have to logout of the server and close any SSH shell, and then re-login.

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.

There is no officially supported version of OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) for Debian 9. However, using the guide below, you are able to download the Debian 8 version of OMSA onto a Debian 9 OS.

Please note that there may be compatibility issues and iomart (and any company within the iomart group) are not responsible for any issues performing this action may cause. Also, please note that Dell EMC would advise not to install this version of OMSA onto a Debian 9 server.

If you do with to install OMSA onto a Debian 9 server, using a Debian 8 version of the software, see below how to perform this task.

Downloading OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) onto a server with Debian 9 installed, involves issue commands which download the necessary repository files and keys, install the required utilities, then start and enable the OMSA services.

First, you need to log into the server’s root account. Once you are logged in, to install OMSA onto your Debian 9 server, please issue the following commands one after the after, waiting for each task to complete before proceeding with the next command:

Command 1
Command Description	The following four commands are to configure your server so that the Debian 8 version of OMSA can be installed onto Debian 9. Please note that there may be compatibility issues and iomart (and any company within the iomart group) are not responsible for any issues performing this action may cause. Also, please note that Dell EMC would advise not to do this.
Command	wget -q -O /tmp/libssl1.0.0_1.0.1t-1+deb8u9_amd64.deb (please note, this and all commands are one continuous line)
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Command 2
Command	dpkg -i /tmp/libssl1.0.0_1.0.1t-1+deb8u9_amd64.deb
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Command 3
Command	apt-get update
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Command 4
Command	apt-get install dirmngr* -y
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Command 5
Command Description	Issue the following command to create the repository file, using the Jessie repo, because the Strech one is not compatible.
Command	echo 'deb http://linux.dell.com/repo/community/debian jessie openmanage' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linux.dell.com.sources.list (please note, this and all commands are one continuous line)
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Command 6
Command Description	Run this command to download the repostiroy key.
Command	gpg --keyserver hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-key 1285491434D8786F
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Command 7
Command Description	Run this comand to import the key into APT.
Command	gpg -a --export 1285491434D8786F | apt-key add -
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Command 8
Command Description	Run the bellow command to let APT know there is a new repository.
Command	apt-get update -y
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Command 9
Command Description	Issue the following command to install the required utilities.
Command	apt-get install srvadmin-base srvadmin-omcommon srvadmin-storageservices –y
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Command 10
Command Description	Issue the below command to start the OMSA service.
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh start
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Command 11
Command Description	Now run this command to enable the OMSA service.
Command	/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh enable
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Dell EMC’s OpenManage System will now be installed on your server. You can then use this software to manage and monitor the hardware within this server. Before you can access and use OMSA, you will have to logout of the server and close any SSH shell, and then re-login.

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.

When Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) is installed on a Linux server, the OMSA product is accessible through the server’s operating system, through the command line interface.

Simply access your server remotely in the normal manor and log into your server’s root account. You can then issue a command through the server’s operating system to find what information you need. Some example of commands can be found through our FAQ section on MyServers. Additional commands and information can be found online through Dell EMC’s and Linux’s support websites, and through community pages.

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.

One of the main features of Dell’s OpenManage Server Administrator tool (OMSA) is that it allows you to check for any errors that may have occurred with the server’s hardware and allows you to check the current status of several components. Due to the nature of hardware, we recommend checking the status of the server’s hardware on a regular basis.

To check the current state of the server and to check the error log, you should run the following command:

Command 1
Command Description	The following command shows the current status of the server and displays the server’s alert log, as monitored by OMSA.
Command	omreport system alertlog
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The above command will show the log of all errors with the server hardware monitored by OMSA. You can use this information to see if there are currently any errors with the server that may need investigation. An example of an error would be the following:

As you can see from this example, there is currently an error with the storage of this server. The severity of the error is also shown. There are four statuses within OpenManage:

Status	Description
OK	The component is working as normal and is healthy.
Non-Critical Warning	These errors normally indicate a problem which is not service impacting, but still require prompt attention.
Failed / Critical Warning	The component has either failed or has a critical warning. If a critical error occurs, there error must be addressed as soon as possible.
Unknown Status	The status of this component is unknown.

To find out more specific details about errors relating to hardware and to check the current status of specific pieces of hardware, you need to run the specific OMSA command in the server’s root account’s command line interface.

Some examples of commands can be found below; additional commands and information can be found online through Dell EMC’s and Linux’s support websites, and through community pages.

When storage is mentioned in Dell EMC OpenManage (OMSA), this is referring to the RAID controller (if a RAID controller is present), all the physical drives, and all the virtual drives (or RAID arrays). When an error occurs related to storage, this would normally mean that there is an error with a physical drive, which has then effected the RAID array it is configured within. This is for the majority of cases; however, there can be other issues related to storage, which can cause errors.

To check for errors relating to storage, run the following command:

Command 1
Command Description	The following command shows the current status of the server and displays the server’s alert log, as monitored by OMSA.
Command	omreport system alertlog
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This command will list all the errors with the server; including errors relating to storage. In my example, you can see that there are several errors relating to storage; all caused by Physical Disk 0:1:3 being missing/removed.

You can use the information in the log to identify which Controller, Connector, Virtual Disk (VD) and Physical Disk (PD) the errors relate to.

With this information, you can find out more details about the physical drive that has failed. Run the following command, inputting the controller number from your error:

Command 2
Command Description	The following command lists all the Physical Disks attached to the controller you specify; and all the Physical Disk’s details.
Command	omreport storage pdisk controller=[Insert Controller Number]
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Here you will now be able to see a list of Physical Disks attached to this controller. You will also be able to see any errors and the state of each Physical Disk.

At this point, it is good to know what the configuration of your server should be, especially related to RAID arrays and disk configuration. 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.

These details can be used to identify any drives that may have an error, may be fault, or may be missing from OMSA’s monitoring; and can help locate a drive for it to be replaced.

You can use this information to decide what you wish to do next. If you do encounter any drives with an error and wish for this drive to be replaced, please see the section on having a disk replaced using OMSA for more details.

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.

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.

Due to the nature of hardware, it is good practice to check the status of your server’s hardware on a regular basis, to check for any errors or failed components. Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application allows you to check the current status of several sub-components of the server.

To check for any errors, simply run the command to show the error log, as shown below:

Command 1
Command Description	The following command shows the current status of the server and sow the server’s alert log, as monitored by OMSA.
Command	omreport system alertlog
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command

This will provide you with a list of any errors related to hardware monitored by OMSA. You can use this to see if any component monitored by OMSA currently has an error. If you do encounter any errors, you should use OMSA’s commands to find out more details about the component and its error. Please see below how to do this for some of the main components. For other components, commands can be found online through Dell’s and Linux’s support websites.

You can also run commands to check the current status and configuration of specific pieces of hardware and to look at any errors in more detail. It is good practice to do this on a regular basis, as running the above command may not list a completely failed piece of hardware; so you should check each main hardware type to identify if any piece of hardware has completely failed and is missing. There are specific commands for different pieces of hardware monitored by OMSA. See below for examples of the main components monitored by OMSA and the commands that are used to check their status (excluding components related to storage).

Memory

The memory component refers to all the RAM within the chassis. You can use OMSA to check how many RAM sticks are configured within the server, their details, their status and what DIMM slot they are using on the server’s motherboard.

To check on the status of the memory within the chassis, you need to run the following command:

RAM - Command 1
Command Description	Run the following command to bring up a list of what RAM stick are configured within the chassis, their status, and their details.
Command	omreport chassis memory
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command

You can use the results of this command to check the status of your system’s memory. If a stick of RAM ever does become faulty, you will be able to find the details of the faulty RAM here which our technicians would need to replace the faulty stick. You can also use this page to identify if a RAM stick has become completely failed and is now missing from OMSA.

If you wish for a faulty stick of RAM to be replaced, please let us know all the details found through OMSA, so we can easily identify the faulty stick of RAM. If possible, a screenshot of this page would also be helpful. Please see the section on getting faulty RAM replaced using OMSA for more details.

Processors

You can use OMSA to list the processors (or CPUs) configured within your server. To find out more details about the processors in your server and their current status, run the following command.

Processor (CPU) - Command 1
Command Description	Run the following command to bring up a list of what Processors are configured within the chassis, their status and their details.
Command	omreport chassis processors
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command

If an error does ever occur with a processor within a server, please feel free to get in touch and we will be happy to investigate this for you. If there is more than one processer installed in your server, please provide us with the Connector Name of the faulty CPU, so our technicians can easily identify which processor needs replacing. For more details on getting a faulty CPU replaced, please see the section on getting a CPU replaced using OMSA.

Network

You can use OMSA to lists all the network ports attached to the server. You can also see the NIC interface’s index, name, details and status. To find these details, run the following command:

Network - Command 1
Command Description	Run the following command to bring up a list of network ports within the chassis.
Command	omreport chassis nics
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command

You can use the above information to identify if any of the network ports have encounter an error.

The above commands, provided by OMSA, allows you to check the status of several components and to check for errors. This information allows you decide on what action you wish to be taken on the server and allows you to effectively troubleshoot any hardware related issues.

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.

If you do encounter a physical drive with an error and you wish for this drive to be replaced, you will need to provide as much of the following information about the failed drive as possible to our support team, to allow our technicians to correctly identify which drive needs replacing:

1. Serial number

2. Type of drive (e.g. SSD, SATA HDD, SAS HDD, etc.)

3. Capacity

4. Product ID

5. Physical Drive Bay Number

This information will aid the technician in locating the failed drive and swapping it with the correct replacement drive. You can use Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application to find this information.

To find this information, you must first be logged into the server’s root account, then have identify a drive with an error/that has failed. Please see the sections on accessing OMSA and then the section on locating a drive with an error, if you are un-sure how to do this. To locate a drive with an error/which has failed, you should have run the following command:

Command 1
Command Description	The following command lists all the Physical Disks attached to the controller you specify; and all the Physical Disk’s details. Within the command, you must insert the controller number, for the controller you wish to check the status of the physical disks for. You should be able to find this number from the resulting message of commands shown in the identifying storage errors section of the FAQ: omreport storage controller.
Command	omreport storage pdisk controller=[Insert Controller Number]
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command

Once you have found the physical drive with the error and run the above command, you should be able to identify details about the drive with the error, including the details required by our technicians to locate the drive. See the image below as an example of how to find the necessary information.

If you wish for the drive to be replaced, please supply all the necessary information in a support ticket, requesting for the faulty drive to be replaced, and we will be happy to help. You can also supply a screenshot of the results of the above command.

To work out the drive’s physical bay number, you can use the ID of this drive in conjunction with all the other physical disks’ ID numbers. After running the command above you will be able to see the ID number of all the Physical Disks attached to this controller, which you can use to identify the bay number of the faulty drive. Using the example below, the drive I wish to be replaced is disk 0:1:3, the first drive in the server is disk 0:1:0 and the last drive is 0:1:3. When asking the technicians to replace this disk, simply inform them of the failed drive’s ID number (e.g. 0:1:3) and inform them of the drive’s ID counting format (e.g. 0:1:0 to 0:1:3), as they can use this to locate the physical disk.

In addition to providing the information above, OMSA on most servers will also allow you to set the drive to ‘blink’, which will also help our technician locate the appropriate drive. To get the drive to blink, run the following command. You will need to know the controller’s ID number, for the controller the drive is attached to, and the drive’s ID number, for the drive you wish to blink.

Command 1
Command Description	The following command sets the LED on the drive bay, for the inputted drive, to blink. You need to input the controller ID number and the Physical Disk ID number for the drive you wish to blink.
Command	omconfig storage pdisk action=blink controller=[Insert Controller ID#] pdisk=[Insert PD ID#]
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command

If you have been able to set the drive to blink, please inform the technicians in the support ticket that you have done so. If you cannot set the drive bay to blink, this is most likely not a hot-swappable chassis, meaning this is not required.

When the technicians have completed any drive swap, you should run the following command to set the drive to ‘un-blink’, to stop the drive bay blinking. It is important to do so, to make sure this drive bay isn’t still blinking while any further drive changes at a later date are taking place, as this may lead to some confusion.

Command 1
Command Description	The following command sets the LED on the drive bay, for the inputted drive, to stop blinking. You need to input the controller ID number and the Physical Disk ID number for the drive you wish to blink.
Command	omconfig storage pdisk action=unblink controller=[Insert Controller ID#] pdisk=[Insert PD ID#]
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command

Once you provide all this information in a support ticket and set the drive bay to blink (if possible), the local technicians will be able to look into swapping the failed drive.

If the drive is missing from the OMSA monitoring, opposed to having an error, then you will not be able to provide the necessary information listed above to get the drive replaced, nor set the drive bay to blink. Instead, you can provide the information on all the drives that are still present on OMSA and their details in a support ticket, so that by process of elimination the technicians can replace the missing drive.

Once you have provided all the information from the drives that are still present, the technicians should be able to identify the missing drive and replace it.

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.

If you do encounter an error related to the server’s memory (RAM) and you wish for a RAM stick to be replaced, you will need to provide as much of the following information as possible to our support team, to allow the technicians to correctly identify which RAM stick needs replacing:

1. The failed RAM stick’s DIMM slot number (i.e. the Connector Name)

2. The failed RAM stick’s size

3. The failed RAM stick’s type

You can use Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application to find this information. You must first be logged into the server’s root account and have located the RAM stick with the error. Please see the sections on accessing OMSA if you are unsure on how to access it. To find the details about the memory configured in the server, run the following command:

Command 1
Command Description	Run the following command to bring up a list of what RAM sticks are configured within the chassis, their status and their details.
Command	omreport chassis memory
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command

Here you will be able to see a list of the RAM sticks attached to the motherboard, their statuses, their connector names, their type and their size. If a stick of RAM appears with an error and you wish for it to be replaced, you will need to supply all the information about this stick of RAM shown in the results, in a support ticket, so that the technician can identify the failed DIMM and replace it. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Occasionally, if a RAM stick completely fails, it may not appear on this page with an error, but might actually be missing from this page all together. As an example, the server below is meant to be configured with 4x 16GB RAM sticks (or 64Gb of memory in total), but only 3x 16GB RAM sticks are appearing. If this is the case, it is quite likely that a stick has completely failed and needs replacing. If this has happened you will not be able to find the required information above on the failed RAM stick to get it replaced. Instead, you can provide the information on all the other RAM sticks that are still present, so the technicians can locate the failed DIMM through a process of elimination. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Once you have provided all the above information in a support ticket, the technicians should be able to locate and replace the faulty RAM stick.

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.

If you do encounter an error related with a server’s CPU (Processor) and you wish for it to be replaced, and if there is more than one CPU in this server, you will need to provide as much of the following information as possible about the faulty CPU, to allow our technicians to correctly identify which CPU needs replacing:

1. The failed CPU’s slot number (i.e. the Connector Name)

2. The failed CPU’s Make and Model (i.e. Processor Brand information)

If your server only has one CPU installed, we do not require this information to locate and replace the CPU. Please feel free to raise a support ticket and we will be happy to help.

If you do have more than one CPU in the server, this information will aid the technician in locating the failed CPU and swapping it with the correct replacement CPU. You can use Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application to find this information.

To find this information, you must first be logged into the server’s root account and you must have located the CPU with the error. Please see the sections on accessing OMSA if you are unsure on how to access OMSA. To find the details about the processors configured in the server, run the following command:

Processor (CPU) - Command 1
Command Description	Run the following command to bring up a list of what Processors are configured within the chassis, their status and their details.
Command	omreport chassis processors
Image of Command being Run
Image of a Successful Result of Command

Here you will be able to see a list of the CPUs installed in the server, their make and model, their connector name and their specifications. If a CPU appears with an error and you wish for this CPU to be replaced, you will need to supply all the information about this CPU that appears in the results from this command in a support ticket, so that our technician can identify the failed processor and replace it. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Occasionally, if a CPU completely fails, it may not appear on this page with an error, but might actually be missing from this page all together. If this is the case, then you will not be able to find the information above on the failed CPU, to get it replaced. Instead, you can provide the information on all the CPUs that are present, so the technicians can locate the failed processor through a process of elimination. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Once you have provided all the above information in a support ticket, the technicians should be able to locate and replace the faulty CPU.

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.

Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application is a free tool which Dell provide, enabling Dell PowerEdge users to have greater control over their server remotely. OMSA is downloadable through Dell’s support website and is compatible with most Operating Systems and with most PowerEdge chassis. OMSA compatibility is based on the Dell PowerEdge server’s generation and the version of ESXI installed onto the server. See below what generation of Dell PowerEdge servers Vs. what Operating System OMSA supports.

Compatibility with OS	Compatible with Dell PE 11th Gen (R_10)	Compatible with Dell PE 12th Gen (R_20)	Compatible with Dell PE 13th Gen (R_30)
ESXI 5.0	Yes	Not Supported	Not Supported
ESXI 5.1	Yes	Yes	Not Supported
ESXI 5.5	Yes	Yes	Yes
ESXI 6.0	Not Supported	Yes	Yes
ESXI 6.5	Not Supported	Yes	Yes

Please note that OpenManage Server Administrator is a free piece of software supplied by Dell EMC. As such iomart (and any company within the iomart group; including RapidSwitch and Redstation) are not responsible for this software, nor are they responsible for any effects downloading, installing or using this software may have on your platform. We can only advise you to use OMSA and provide you with advice on how to do so; the choice to download, install and use the software must be your own. Also, as a managed infrastructure provider, we do not officially support OMSA; as such we will not be able to install, use or configure this software.

The Dell OMSA product is downloaded through Dell’s website, on their Product Support – Drivers & Downloads page, found here:

Dell Product Support - Drivers & Downloads

First, open up this webpage on your home/work computer’s web-browser. We will be downloading the OMSA installation file onto your home/work computer and then remotely uploading it onto your server from there.

Once you are on the Drivers & Downloads page, you need to select the model of you server. To find the model of your server, while on the MyServers control panel, press the My Servers button.

Then click on the name of the server you wish to install OMSA onto.

On this page, under Service Description, you will be able to see the make and model of this server. In my example below, you can see that the server is a Dell PowerEdge R230.

Now you know the model of your device, you can enter the model into the Dell website, by typing the chassis’ model in the search bar and then pressing the green arrow. Please type in the chassis model in the same format as shown in the image below (PowerEdge R---).

You should now be presented with the chassis’ Drivers & Downloads page. If you are presented with a list of search results, however, please look through the results and click on your chassis model. Once you are on the Drives & Downloads page, you should now enter the Operating System which is installed on the server. Do this in the Operating System drop-down box.

Now in the Keyword search box enter ‘OMSA’ and select Systems Management in the Category drop-down box.

Now find the Dell EMC OpenManage Server Administrator Managed Installation Bundle (VIB) and click on its download button. The software installer file will now download onto your home/work computer.

Once the download has finished, you should rename the zip file to OMSA. This will make it easier to install.

Once the installation file has been downloaded onto your home/work computer, you can now upload the installation file onto the server’s Operating System, into the Host’s datastore. Different version of VMware ESXI have slightly different processes for uploading content remotely; but the principle is the same. The process I use below, to demonstrate how to do this, uses ESXI 6.5 as an example. If you have a different version of VMware ESXI installed on your server, the process is very similar to the one outlined below, but you can also use content available on the internet to aid you in uploading the OMSA installer file to the host’s datastore.

To upload the installer bundle onto your server’s operating system, first remotely access and log into your server, using the same computer you downloaded the installation bundle onto. Next, you need to locate the Host’s datastore. To do this in ESXI 6.5, first make sure Host is selected, then select Storage, and then click on the datastore you wish to have the file uploaded to.

Please take a note of the datastore’s name; as you will need this for a later step. In my example, it is datastore1.

Now you are on the datastore you wish to upload the installation bundle onto, select Datastore browser.

You can now click Upload.

You now need to select the OMSA installation bundle to upload it.

The installation bundle should now appear in the datastore. You can now press close, to close the datastore browser.

Now the file has been uploaded to the server, the next step is to enable SSH for this server (if you haven’t previously enabled SSH). To do this in ESXI 6.5, return to Host, select Actions, select Services and then select Enable Secure Shell (SSH).

Once you have clicked Enable, you should be returned to the host’s home screen and be presented with the message ‘SSH is enabled on this host. You should disable SSH unless it is necessary for administrative purposes’.

You now need to SSH into your server’s host root account, using Putty (or any SSH client tool). Once you are logged in, you now need to install the VIB with the following command:

Command 1
Command Description	Issue the following command to install the OMSA software.
Command	esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volume/[Insert datastore name]/[Insert filename].zip (You should have taken a note of the datastore name in an earlier step; and you should have set the filename to OMSA)
Image of Command being Run	(In my example, the datastore name is datastore1 and the filename is OMSA)
Image of a Successful Result of Command

To complete the installation, you now need to reboot the host. To do this in VMware ESXI, you can exit the SSH shell, return to the GUI interface, and while on the Host’s homepage click Reboot.

If you are not in Maintenance mode, you may be presented with an error. If you are happy for the server to be restarted, press Reboot.

If you normally have SSH disabled on your server, you may wish to disable SSH, as this will improve your server’s security.

The server’s operating system should now reboot and you should be presented with the OS’s login screen. Once the host has rebooted, the installation of OMSA onto your server is now complete.

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

When Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) is installed on a VMware ESXI server, to access OMSA, you will need to download a version of the OMSA software onto your home/work computer and access it remotely.

To install OMSA onto a Windows computer, first download OMSA for Windows onto your computer. Click the appropriate version (based on your home/work computer’s memory) below, to download the OMSA software onto your computer:

System Architecture (bits)	OMSA Download Link
x32 bits	OMSA 8.5
x64 bits	OMSA 9.1

Please note that the source of these two downloads are Dell’s Support website. You can find the two files here:

https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/how10613/how-to-install-openmanage-server-administrator-omsa-on-vmware-to-collect-logs?lang=en

Once the files have downloaded, you will need to un-zip it; using software such as WinZip. When the file has been un-zipped, you need to open the OpenManage > Windows folder, then run the setup.exe file.

The Dell OpenManage Server Administrator prerequisite status screen runs and displays the prerequisite checks for the managed system.

Once it has completed scanning for prerequisite information, it will list out any errors or warnings that it encountered. You should resolve all error and warning situations before continuing the installation. Some errors are correctible by simply clicking on the blue text within the error. Once you are ready to install OMSA, click Install Server Administrator.

The Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Install Wizard now appears. Click Next to begin to proceed.

The Dell End User License Agreement now appears. Please read through this agreement. If you wish to proceed, select the ‘I Accept’ option and then click Next.

You now need to select the type of installation required. There are two options:

• Typical: All program features will be installed.

• Custom: Choose which features you want installed and choose the installation directory.

This guide will show you how to proceed with the Typical install of OSMA. However, if you run a Custom install, you will be able to select which features you wish to be installed and where for OMSA to be installed to.

For a Typical install, make sure Typical is selected and then press Next.

Now click Install.

The install will now begin. Once it has completed. Press Finish.

OMSA has now been installed onto your home/work computer. You can now use this to access the OMSA software on your VMware ESXI software. To do, first open the software.

This will open a new web-page in your default browser. Advance through the warning page until you get to the Managed System login page. Now enter the default external IP address for your server’s Host. This is the IP address you use to access the server remotely, to access the host’s controls. Then enter the host user’s root username and password.

Now tick Ignore Certificate Warnings and press submit.

You should now be presented with the home screen for the OMSA control panel, for you ESXI server. You have now accessed and logged into Dell EMC’s OpenManage software. You can now use OMSA to check the hardware of your server and to monitor for any errors. We would recommend familiarising yourself with the application and the configuration of the server after you have logged in for the first time; so if an error does occur in future, you already understand how your server should be configured and how to use the application.

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.

One of the main features of Dell’s OpenManage Server Administrator tool is that it allows you to check for any errors that may have occurred with the server’s hardware.

When you first log into the OpenManger portal on a Windows computer, and use it to access the OMSA tools of your VMware ESXI server, you will be presented with the current health status of the server. If there are currently any errors with the server, they will be displayed here.

As you can see from this example, there is currently an error with the storage of this server. The severity and type of error is identified by the symbol in-line with the error. There are four statuses within OpenManage:

Icon	Status	Description
	OK	The component is working as normal and is healthy.
	Non-Critical Warning	These errors normally indicate a problem which is not currently service impacting, but will still require prompt attention.
	Failed / Critical Warning	The component has either failed or has a critical warning. If a critical error has occurred, it must be addressed as soon as possible.
	Unknown Status	The status of this component is unknown.

How you identify the specific error and how you proceed is dependent on what type of component has an error. Please see below how to investigate specific pieces or hardware.

The term storage, when mentioned in the Dell EMC OpenManage portal, refers to the RAID controller (if a RAID controller is present), all the physical drives, and all the virtual drives (or RAID arrays) within the server. When an error occurs related to storage, this would normally mean that there is an error with a Physical Disks, which has then effected the RAID array it is configured within. This is for the majority of cases; however, there can be other issues related storage, which cause storage errors.

In my example by below, there is currently a non-critical error with the storage of this server. To find more details out about any present error, first, simply click on the component with the error.

Depending on the set-up of the server, you may now need to navigate further, to identify the specific details of the error. In my example, it is a SSD which has an error; so I need to Navigate from the RAID controller component, into the array which contains the SSD. This will bring up the list of Physical Disks configured within this array. Navigate by clicking on the component title with the error.

Once you are presented with the component with the error, click on the symbol to bring up more details about the component.

Here you can see the details about the Physical Disk, its state and its current status.

These details can be used to identify which drive is faulty and can help locate the drive. Using this information, you can decide what action you wish to be taken. If you wish for a drive to be replaced, please see the section on having a drive replaced using OMSA for more details.

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.

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.

To check the status of the storage devices within the server, first use the OMSA portal on your home/work computer to access your server’s OMSA services. Once you are logged in to the OMSA GUI, click on storage, in the lift hand side panel.

Depending on the configuration of your server, you will now be presented with a list of RAID controllers and Virtual Disks configured on the server (if present), or a list of Physical Disks.

If there are any errors with any of the storage components or configuration, you should see either a non-critical or critical warning symbol, next to one of the items. You should also be able to see the status of the Virtual Disks (if present) on this server.

At this point, it is good to know what the configuration of your server should be, especially related to RAID arrays and drive configuration. For the server in my example, the server was meant to have 4x RAID 0s configured, which means there should be 4x Virtual Disks. However, as you can see in my example, one of the Virtual Disks is missing.

If a Virtual Disk is missing, it would normally indicate that one or more of the physical drives within this array has completely failed, which has caused the RAID array to go offline. To investigate further, you would need to check the Physical Disks.

If there is an error with a Virtual Disk, if a Virtual Disk is missing, or even if nothing appears to be wrong, at this point you should check the status of all the Physical Disks within the chassis. You should now click on the RAID controller name to check the individual components within the RAID controller.

You should now see a list of components attached to the RAID controller. This list can differ depending on the RAID controller that is installed in your server. In my example, the RAID controller has a Battery, two connecters, Firmware/Driver Version and Virtual Disks attached/configured on the RAID controller.

You can see the status of each component to the right of it; which you can use to identify if there are currently any errors. However, if a Virtual/Physical Disk is completely offline, the status may still show as OK for the Virtual Disks and Connectors, so it is still worth clicking into these components even if they show as having no error. Click onto Connector 0 to begin with.

Depending on the configuration of you server, you may need to click on further components (e.g. Enclosure), until you reach the list of Physical Disks.

Here you will now be able to see a list of Physical Disks attached to this connecter on the RAID controller. Please note, depending on the setup of your server, not all of the physical drives may be connected to connecter 0; so you should keep this in mind while following the below steps and also check any other connecters.

Using the list of all the physical drives, you will be able to see if any of the drives have an error and the state of each Physical Disk.

At this point, it is good to know what the configuration of your server should be, especially related to RAID arrays and disk configuration. As an example, the server below is meant to have 4x Physical Disks attached to the RAID controller (all through connector 0), 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.

You can use this screen to see the current state of each drive attached to the RAID controller through this connector. In my example, one of the disks has a foreign configuration, which would normally suggest an error has occurred with the drive.

If you are presented with a component with an error, click on the symbol to bring up more details about this component.

Here you can see the details about the physical drive, its state and its current status.

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 found on 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 example above. This will aid our technician in identifying the faulty drive during the drive swap process.

You should now repeat this process for any other connectors and then any other RAID controllers configured within your server. How many connectors are present depend on the model of the RAID controller. How many connectors are in use depends on how your server was built and configured. Most of our dedicated servers only use one connector, meaning that other connectors may have no Virtual Disks or Physical Disks behind them, but please check to make sure.

Once you have checked all the connectors, you can now also check the Virtual Disks for more details about their configuration and status, by clicking on the Virtual Disks button. The status of the Virtual Drives were shown in a previous screen, but by using the below steps, you can check the Virtual Disks in more detail.

Here you will be able to see a list of all the Virtual Disks (or RAID Arrays) configured on this RAID controller and their current status. You will also be able to see the details of each Virtual Disk; including the layout (i.e. the RAID configuration/level).

At this point, it is good to know what the configuration of your server should be, especially related to RAID arrays and drive configuration. For the server in my example below, the server is meant to have 4x RAID 0s configured, which means there should be 4x Virtual Disks. However, as you can see in my example, one of the Virtual Disks is missing. The most likely cause for this is either an error with a Physical disk or a missing drive; which you should have been able to identify on the page which listed all the physical disks attached to the connectors.

If an error does appears against one of the Virtual Disks, you can click the name to find out all the Physical Disks configured within this Virtual Disk, and check for any drives with errors or identify any missing drives.

After checking the status of each component attached to each RAID controller, checking through each connector of the RAID controller, all the Physical Disks and all the Virtual Disks, you should have a clear picture of the status of your server’s storage, and if there are any errors or missing disks. If you have encountered any issue with any of the hardware, please feel free to get in touch and we will be happy to help. If you need further advice on how to proceed, please feel free to get in touch or check through our FAQ section on our MyServers Control Panel.

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.

Due to the nature of hardware, it is good practice to regularly check the status of your server’s hardware, to check for any errors or failed components. Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application allows you to check the current status of several sub-components of the server.

To check the status of the components within the server, first log into the OMSA portal on the server’s web browser. Once you are logged in to the OMSA GUI, click on Main System chassis, in the left hand side panel.

You will now see a list of all the components which OpenManage monitors; other than the components related to storage (e.g. drives and RAID controllers). Depending on the model of your chassis and its configuration, the list of components that OpenManage can monitor will differ. In my example, you can see that the Batteries, Fans, Intrusion switch, Memory (RAM), Processors, Temperatures and Voltage are all monitored. You will also see the current status of each component. In my example below, there are no errors.

In addition to the components listed on the main section of this page, you may also see several other components listed under Main System Chassis, on the left-hand-side panel. In my example, I can see BIOS, Firmware, Network, Ports, Power Management, Remote Access, Removable Flash Media and Slots within the left-hand-side panel; which are not listed within the main section of the page.

To find out more details about each specific component, click on the component name.

Below is some detail on how to check the current status of the main components within these lists. If you require more details about components monitored by OMSA, which are not outlined below, content can be found on Dell’s support website. If you need any assistance, please feel free to raise a support ticket, and we will be happy to help.

Memory

The memory component refers to all the RAM within the chassis. When you click on memory, you will be able to find the details about how much memory you server is currently configured with, the total amount of memory this chassis can take, what type or RAM stick is in the chassis, the details of each individual stick and their current status.

If a stick of RAM ever does become faulty, you will be able to find the details of the faulty RAM stick here. If you wish for a faulty stick of RAM to be replaced, please let us know all the details found within the Details of Memory Array section, so we can easily identify the faulty stick of RAM. If possible, a screenshot of this page would also be helpful. Please see the section on getting faulty RAM replaced using OMSA for more details.

Processors

The processor (or CPU) page, lists all the processors within the server, their details, and their current status. If you wish to find out more details about a processor, you can click on the Connector Name to bring up more details.

If an error does ever occur with a processor within a server, please feel free to get in touch and we will be happy to investigate this for you. If there is more than one processer installed in your server, please provide us with the Connector Name of the faulty CPU, so our technicians can easily identify which processor needs replacing. For more details on getting a faulty CPU replaced, please see the section on getting a CPU replaced using OMSA.

Network

Once you click on Network, you will be able to see a list of all the network ports attached to the server.

You can also see the description of the network ports (i.e. the network port device’s details) and if they are currently shown as connected or not connected. You can also click on the interface name to find out more details about this connection; including the MAC address, the duplex settings, the link and connection status, the IP settings and the port’s speed.

The above monitoring tools, provided by OMSA, allows you to check the status of several components and to check for any errors. This information allows you decide on what action you wish to be taken on the server and allows you to effectively troubleshoot any hardware related issues with the server.

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.

If you do encounter a physical drive with an error and you wish for this drive to be replaced, you will need to provide as much of the following information about the failed drive as possible, to allow our technicians to correctly identify which drive needs replacing:

1. Serial number

2. Type of drive (e.g. SSD, SATA HDD, etc.)

3. Capacity

4. Product ID

5. Physical Drive Bay Number

This information will aid our technician in locating the failed drive and swapping it with the correct replacement drive. You can use Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application to find this information.

To find this information, you first need to use OMSA on your home/work computer to access OMSA on your server, and then locate the Physical Disk with the error. Please see the sections on accessing OMSA and then the section on investigating storage/storage errors to locate the failed drive, if you are un-sure how to do this. Once you have found the physical drive with the error, you will be able to click the button to find more details about the drive with the error, including the details required by our technicians to locate the drive. See the image below as an example of how to find the necessary information from the details of a physical drive. You can also provide a screenshot of the failed drive’s details.

To work out the drive’s physical bay number, you can use the ID of this drive in conjunction with all the other Physical Disks’ ID numbers. If you return to the list of all the Physical Disks, you can see the drive I wish to be replaced is disk 0:1:1, the first drive in the server is disk 0:1:0 and the last drive is 0:1:3. When asking the technicians to replace this drive, simply inform them of the failed drive’s ID number (e.g. 0:1:0) and inform them of the drive’s ID counting format (e.g. 0:1:0 to 0:1:3), as they should be able use this to locate the physical disk. You can also provide a screenshot of this page.

In addition to providing the information above, OMSA on most servers will also allow you to set the drive to ‘blink’, which can be used to help the technician locate the appropriate drive. To get the drive to blink, while on the page which lists all the Physical Disks, set the task to ‘blink’ in-line with the drive you wish to be swapped and then press Execute. This will then make the LED light on the drive’s caddy blink.

If you are able to set the drive to blink, please inform the technicians in the support ticket that you have done so. Some chassis may not allow you to perform this action, however. If you cannot set the drive bay to blink, this is most likely a non-hot-swappable chassis, meaning this is not required.

When the technicians have completed any drive swap, you can use this same process to set the drive to ‘un-blink’, using the ‘un-blink’ task, to stop the drive bay blinking. It is important to do this, to make sure this drive bay isn’t still blinking during any further drive changes at a later date, as this may lead to some confusion.

Once you provide all this information in a support ticket and set the drive bay to blink (if possible), our technicians will be able to look into swapping the failed drive.

If the drive is missing from the OMSA monitoring completely (opposed to having an error), then you will not be able to provide the necessary information listed above to get the drive replaced, nor set the drive bay to blink. Instead, you can provide the information on all the drives still present on OMSA and their details, so that by process of elimination our technicians can replace the missing drive.

Once you have provided all the information from the drives that are still present, the technicians should be able to identify the missing drive and replace it.

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.

If you do encounter an error related to the server’s memory (RAM) and you wish for a RAM stick to be replaced, you will need to provide as much of the following information about the failed RAM stick as possible, to allow our technicians to correctly identify which RAM stick needs replacing:

1. The failed RAM stick’s DIMM slot number (i.e. the Connector Name)

2. The failed RAM stick’s size

3. The failed RAM stick’s type

This information will aid our technician in locating the failed RAM stick and swapping it with the correct replacement RAM. You can use Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application to find this information.

To find this information, first use OMSA on your home/work computer to remotely access OMSA on your server, and then locate the RAM stick with the error. Please see the sections on accessing OMSA if you are unsure on how to access OMSA. To find the details about the memory configured in the server, first click on Main System Chassis and then Memory, in the left-hand-side panel.

The list of RAM sticks attached to the server’s motherboard are found under Details of Memory Array 1. Here you will be able to see their status, their connector names, their type and their size. If a stick of RAM appears with an error, you will need to supply all the information about this RAM stick that appears in this table, in a support ticket, so that our technician can identify the failed DIMM and replace it. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Occasionally, if a RAM stick completely fails, it may not appear on this page with an error, but might actually be missing from this page all together. As an example, if your server is meant to be configured with 4x 16GB RAM sticks (or 64Gb of memory in total), but only 3x 16GB RAM sticks are appearing, then it is quite likely that a stick has completely failed and needs replacing. If this is the case, you will not be able to find the information above on the failed RAM stick, to get it replaced. Instead, you can provide the information on all the RAM sticks that are present without errors, so the technicians can locate the failed DIMM through a process of elimination. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Once you have provided all the above information in a support ticket, our technicians should be able to locate and replace the faulty RAM stick.

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.

If you do encounter an error related with a server’s CPU and you wish for it to be replaced, and if there is more than one CPU in this server, you will need to provide as much of the following information about the faulty CPU as possible, to allow our technicians to correctly identify which CPU needs replacing:

1. The failed CPU’s slot number (i.e. the Connector Name)

2. The failed CPU’s Make and Model (i.e. Processor Brand information)

If your server only has one CPU installed, we do not require this information to locate and replace the CPU. Please feel free to raise a support ticket and we will be happy to help.

If you do have more than one CPU in the server, this information will aid our technician in locating the failed CPU and swapping it with the correct replacement CPU. You can use Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application to find this information.

To find this information, first use OMSA on your home/work computer to access OMSA on your server, and then locate the CPU with the error. Please see the sections on accessing OMSA if you are un-sure how to access OMSA. To find the details about the CPUs configured in the server, first click on Main System Chassis and then click on Processors, on the left-hand-side panel. The list of CPUs installed in the server will now appear.

Here you will be able to see a list of the CPUs installed in the server, their make and model, their connector name and their specifications. If a CPU appears with an error, you will need to supply all the information about this CPU that appears in this table, in a support ticket, so that our technician can identify the failed processor and replace it. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Occasionally, if a CPU completely fails, it may not appear on this page with an error, but might actually be missing from this page all together. If this is the case, then you will not be able to find the information above on the failed CPU, to get it replaced. Instead, you can provide the information on all the CPUs that are present without errors, so our technicians can locate the failed processor through a process of elimination. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Once you have provided all the above information in a support ticket, the technicians should be able to locate and replace the faulty CPU.

Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application is a free tool which Dell provide, enabling Dell PowerEdge users to have greater control over their server. OMSA is downloadable through Dell’s support website and is compatible with most of the latest Operating systems and with most PowerEdge chassis. OMSA compatibility is based on the Dell PowerEdge server’s generation and the version of Windows Server installed onto the server. See below to see what server generation Vs. what Operating System OMSA supports.

Dell PowerEdge Generation	Compatible with Windows Server 2012 & 2012 R2	Compatible with Windows Server 2016
Dell PowerEdge 11th Gen (R_10)	Yes	Not Supported*
Dell PowerEdge 12th Gen (R_20)	Yes	Yes
Dell PowerEdge 13th Gen (R_30)	Yes	Yes
*There is no officially supported version of OMSA for Windows Server 2016 for 11th Gen servers. However, you may be able to install the 12th generation version for 2016 onto a 11th Gen server. Please note, compatibility issues may arise from doing this. Also, iomart (or any company within the iomart group) are not responsible for any issues caused by performing this action, and Dell EMC would advise not to perform this action.

Please note that OpenManage Server Administrator is a free piece of software supplied by Dell EMC. As such iomart (and any company within the iomart group; including RapidSwitch and Redstation) are not responsible for this software, nor are they responsible for any effects downloading, installing or using this software may have on your platform. We can only advise you to use OMSA and provide you with advice on how to do so; the choice to download, install and use the software must be your own. Also, as a managed infrastructure provider, we do not officially support OMSA; as such we will not be able to install, use or configure this software.

The Dell OMSA product is downloaded through Dell’s website, on their Product Support – Drivers & Downloads page, found here:

Dell Product Support - Drivers & Downloads

First, open up this page on your server’s web-browser.

Once you are on the Drivers & Downloads page, you now need to select the model of you server. To find the model of your server, while on the MyServers control panel, press the My Servers button.

Then click on the name of the server you wish to install OMSA onto.

On this page, under Service Description, you will be able to see the make and model of this server. In my example below, you can see that the server is a Dell PowerEdge R220.

Now you know the model of your device, you can enter the model of your server on the Dell Support website, by typing the chassis’ model in the search bar and then pressing the green arrow. Please type in the chassis model in the same format as shown in the image below; ‘PowerEdge R---‘.

You should now be presented with the chassis’ Drivers & Downloads page. If you are presented with a list of search results, however, please look through the results and click on your chassis model. Once you are on the Drives & Downloads page you should now select the Operating System which is installed on the server. Do this in the Operating System drop-down box.

Now in the Keyword search box enter ‘OMSA’. Then select Systems Management in the Category drop-down box.

Now find the Dell EMC OpenManage Server Administrator Managed Node for Windows within the list of downloadable software and click on the download button. The software installer file will now download onto your server.

Once the OMSA file has been downloaded onto your Windows server, you can begin to install the software. Start by unpacking the downloaded Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Managed Node file. You will need a program capable of un-zipping files installed on your server, such as WinZip.

Once the file is un-zipped, run the autorun.exe/setup.exe file, found within the OpenManage > Windows folder of the download, to begin the installation wizard.

If the Dell Open Manage Install window appears and prompts you to choose what utility to install, select Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (Standalone Server Management) and click install.

On some versions of OMSA, this screen may not appear and you will be able to skip this step.

The Dell OpenManage Server Administrator prerequisite status screen will now run and display the prerequisite checks for the managed system.

Once it has completed scanning for prerequisite information, it will list any errors or warnings that it encountered. You should resolve all error and warning situations before continuing the installation. Some errors are correctible by simply clicking on the blue text within the error. Once you are ready to install OMSA, click Install Server Administrator.

The Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Install Wizard now appears. Click Next to begin to proceed.

The Dell End User License Agreement now appears. Please read through this agreement. If you wish to proceed, select the ‘I Accept’ option and then click Next.

You now need to select the type of installation required. There are two options:

• Typical: All program features will be installed in the default install location.

• Custom: Choose which features you want installed and choose the installation directory.

If you wish to perform a typical install, meaning you wish to install all features and you are happy for the software to be installed in the default location, select Typical and then press next.

If you wish to perform a custom installation, select Custom and click Next to continue.

This guide will show you how to perform a Custom install; however, if you are performing a Typical install, once you have pressed next, simply press install to start the installation.

If you have selected a custom install, you can now select the features to install. If you want to change a feature so that it is set to be installed or set to be not to be installed, simply click on the icon next to the feature, and then select the option you wish to change it to.

Once you have finished selecting which features you wish to install, you can now check the destination folder. This current install destination is shown under ‘Install to’.

If you wish to change the folder where the software will be installed, press the change button, then us the box that appears to select the destination folder and then press OK.

When you have finished selecting which features you wish to be installed and once you have selected the destination folder, press Next to proceed.

If you are performing a custom installation, you may now be able to select the Alert Messaging Type. There are two options:

• Enhanced Message Format.

• Traditional Message Format.

You can see the descriptions for each format within the installation wizard box. Select which message format you wish to use and then press Next.

 

You can now start the installation. To begin the installation, click Install.

The installation process will begin.

Once the installation has completed, click Finish to exit the installer.

Dell EMC’s OpenManage System Administrator will now be installed onto your server. You can then use this software to manage and monitor the hardware within this server. You may need to restart your server before you can access the OpenManage application, however.

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.

When Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) is installed on a Windows Server, the OMSA product is accessible through a web browser-based GUI, on the Administrator account of the server. To access the web browser-based GUI, enter the following into the URL box of the web browser on your server, while changing the text in red to your server’s external IP address. The external IP of the server will be the one you use to RDP into the server’s administrator account, remotely. Then press enter.

https://[Insert Server’s External IP]:1331

Once you have entered your IP address followed by ‘:1331’ into your server’s web browser, the Dell EMC OpenManage portal will appear, showing a login screen.

If an error does appear after you have entered this into your web-browser, stating that this page cannot be accessed, there may be a firewall rule configured on your server blocking port 1331. If this is the case, you will need to allow access to port 1331 through Windows firewall. Please use Dell’s Support website and documentation for any troubleshooting information.

To login to the OpenManage portal, enter the credentials for the Administrator user of the Windows Operating System of this server. Then press Submit.

You have now accessed and logged into Dell EMC’s OpenManage software. You can now use OMSA to check the hardware of your server and to monitor for any errors. We would recommend familiarising yourself with the application and the configuration of the server after you have logged in for the first time; so if an error does occur in future, you already understand how your server should be configured and how to use the application.

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.

One of the main features of Dell’s OpenManage Server Administrator tool is that it allows you to check for any errors that may have occurred with the server’s hardware.

When you first log into the OpenManger portal on a Windows server, you will be presented with the current health status of the server. If there are currently any errors with the server, they will be displayed here.

As you can see from this example, there is currently an error with the storage of this server. The severity and type of error is identified by the symbol in-line with the error. There are four statuses within OpenManage:

Icon	Status	Description
	OK	The component is working as normal and is healthy.
	Non-Critical Warning	These errors normally indicate a problem which is not service impacting, but still require prompt attention.
	Failed / Critical Warning	The component has either failed or has a critical warning. If a critical error has occurred, the error must be addressed as soon as possible.
	Unknown Status	The status of this component is unknown.

How you identify the specific error and how you proceed is dependent on what type of component has an error. Please see below how to investigate specific pieces or hardware.

When storage is mentioned in the Dell EMC OpenManage portal, this is referring to the server’s RAID controller (if a RAID controller is present), all the physical drives, and all the virtual drives (or RAID arrays) within the server. When an error occurs related to storage, this would normally mean that there is an error with a physical drive, which has then effected the RAID array it is configured within. This is for the majority of cases; however, there can be other issues related to storage, which can cause storage errors.

In my example by below, there is currently a non-critical error with the storage of this server. To find more details out about any present error, first, simply click on the component with the error, under the Component column.

Depending on the set-up of the server, you may now need to navigate further to identify the details of the error. In my example, it is an SSD which has an error; so I need to Navigate from the RAID controller component, into the array which contains the SSD. This will bring up the list of Physical Disks configured within this array. Navigate by clicking on the component title with the error.

Once you are presented with the specific component with the error, click on the symbol to bring up more details about the component.

Here you can see the details about the physical drive, its state and its current status.

These details can be used to identify which drive is faulty and can help our technicians locate the failed drive to replace it. Using this information, you can decide what action you wish to be taken. If you wish for a drive to be replaced, please see the section on having a drive replaced using OMSA for more details on how to get a faulty drive replaced, using the information available on OMSA.

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.

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.

To check the status of the storage devices within the server, first log into the OMSA portal on the server’s web browser. Once you are logged in to the OMSA GUI, click on storage in the left hand side panel.

Depending on the configuration of your server, you will now be presented with a list of RAID controllers and Virtual Disks configured on the server (if present), or a list of Physical Disks.

If there are any errors with any of the storage components or with the storage configuration, you should see either a non-critical or critical warning symbol, next to one of the items. You should also be able to see the status of the Virtual Disks (if present) on this server.

At this point, it is good to know what the configuration of your server should be, especially related to RAID arrays and drive configuration.

For the server in my example, the server was meant to have 4x RAID 0s configured, which means there should be 4x Virtual Disks. However, as you can see in my example, one of the Virtual Disks is missing and there is an error symbol next to the RAID controller’s name.

If an error does appear with any storage device, you will need to click on the name of the device with the error to investigate further, and you would need to check the status of the relevant Physical Disks.

If nothing appears to be wrong with the server’s storage, it is good practice at this point to still check the status of all the Physical Disks within the chassis.

Unless you first wish to investigate a specific issue with a Virtual Disks, you should now click on the RAID controller’s name to check the individual components within the RAID controller. To do this, click on the RAID controller. You should repeat this and each step below for each RAID controller configured within the server.

You should now see a list of components attached to the RAID controller. This list can differ depending on the RAID controller that is installed in your server. In my example, the RAID controller has a Battery, two connecters, Firmware/Driver Version and Virtual Disks attached/configured on the RAID controller.

You can see the status of each RAID controller component under the Severity column; however, if a Virtual/Physical Disk is completely offline and is missing from OMSA, the status may still show as OK for the Virtual Disks and Connectors, so it is still worth clicking into these component. Click onto Connector 0 to begin with.

Depending on the configuration of you server, you may need to click on further components (e.g. Enclosure), until you reach the list of Physical Disks.

Here you will now be able to see a list of Physical Disks attached to this connecter on the RAID controller. Please note, depending on the setup of your server, not all of the physical drives may be connected to connecter 0; so you should keep this in mind while following the below steps.

While a list of all the physical drives are shown you will also be able to see any errors and the state of each Physical Disk

At this point, it is good to know what the configuration of your server should be, especially related to RAID arrays and disk configuration. As an example, the server below is meant to have 4x Physical Disks attached to the RAID controller (all through connector 0), 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.

You can use this screen to see the current state of each drive attached to the RAID controller through this connector. In my example, one of the disks has a foreign configuration, which would normally suggest an error has occurred with the drive.

If you are presented with a component with an error, click on the symbol to bring up more details about this component.

Here you can see the details about the physical disk, its state and its current status.

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 found on 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 example above. This will aid our technician in identifying the faulty drive during the drive swap process.

You should now repeat this process for any other connectors and then any other RAID controllers. How many connectors are present depends on the model of the RAID controller. How many connectors are in use depends on how your server was built and configured. Most of our dedicated servers only use one connector, meaning that other connectors may have no Virtual Disks or Physical Disks behind them, but please check to make sure.

Once you have checked all the connectors, you can now also check the Virtual Disks and find more details about their configuration and status, by clicking on the Virtual Disks button. The status of the Virtual Drives were shown in a previous screen, but by using the below steps, you can check the Virtual Disks in more detail.

Here you will be able to see a list of all the Virtual Disks (or RAID Arrays) configured on this RAID controller and their current status. You will also be able to see the details of each Virtual Disk; including the layout (i.e. the RAID configuration/level).

At this point, it is good to know what the configuration of your server should be, especially related to RAID arrays and drive configuration. For the server in my example below, the server is meant to have 4x RAID 0s configured, which means there should be 4x Virtual Disks. However, as you can see in my example, one of the Virtual Disks is missing. The most likely cause for this is either an error with a Physical Disk or a missing drive; which you should have been able to identify on the page which listed all the physical disks attached to the connectors.

If an error does appears against one of the Virtual Disks, you can click the name to find out all the Physical Disks configured within this Virtual Disk, and check for any drives with errors or identify any missing drives.

After checking the status of each component attached to each RAID controller, checking through each connector of the RAID controller, all the Physical Disks and all the Virtual Disks, you should have a clear picture of the status of your server’s storage and if there are any errors or missing drives. If you have encountered any issue with any of the hardware, please feel free to get in touch and we will be happy to help. If you need further advice on how to proceed, please feel free to get in touch or check through our FAQ section on our MyServers Control Panel.

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.

Due to the nature of hardware, it is good practice to regularly check the status of your server’s hardware, to check for any errors or failed components. Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application allows you to check the current status of several sub-components of the server.

To check the status of the components within the server, first log into the OMSA portal on the server’s web browser. Once you are logged in to the OMSA GUI, click on Main System chassis, on the left hand side panel.

You will now see a list of all the components which OpenManage monitors; other than components related to storage (e.g. drives and RAID controllers). Depending on the model of your chassis and its configuration, the list of components that OpenManage can monitor will differ. In my example, you can see that the Batteries, Fans, Intrusion switch, Memory (RAM), Processors, Temperatures and Voltage are all monitored. You will also see the current status of each component. In my example below, there are no errors.

In addition to the components listed on the main section of this page, you may also see several other components listed under Main System Chassis, on the left-hand-side panel. In my example, I can see BIOS, Firmware, Network, Ports, Power Management, Remote Access, Removable Flash Media and Slots within the left-hand-side panel; which are not listed within the main section of the page.

To find out more details about each specific component, click on the component name.

Below is some detail on how to check the status of the main components within these lists. If you require more details about components monitored by OMSA, which are not outlined below, content can be found on Dell’s support website. If you need any assistance, please feel free to raise a support ticket, and we will be happy to help.

Memory

The memory component refers to all the RAM within the chassis. When you click on memory, you will be able to find the details about how much memory you server is currently configured with, the total amount of memory this chassis can take, what type or RAM sticks are in the chassis, the details of each individual stick and their current status.

If a stick of RAM ever does become faulty, you should be able to find the details of the faulty RAM here. If you wish for a faulty stick of RAM to be replaced, please let us know all the details found within the ‘Details of Memory Array’ section, so we can easily identify the faulty stick of RAM. If possible, a screenshot of this page would also be helpful. Please see the section on getting faulty RAM replaced using OMSA for more details.

Processors

Once you click into the processor page lists all the processors (or CPUs) within the server, their details, and their current status.

If you wish to find out more details about a processor, you can click on the Connector Name to bring up more details. If an error does ever occur with a processor within a server, please feel free to get in touch and we will be happy to investigate this for you. If there is more than one processer installed in your server, please provide us with the Connector Name of the faulty CPU, so our technician can easily identify which processor needs replacing. For more details on getting a faulty CPU replaced, please see the section on getting a CPU replaced using OMSA.

Network

Once you click on Network, you will be able to see a list of all the network ports attached to the server.

You can also see the description of the network ports (i.e. the network port device’s details) and if they are currently shown as connected or not connected. You can also click on the interface name to find out more details about this connection; including the MAC address, the duplex settings, the link and connection status, the IP settings and the port’s speed.

The above monitoring tools, provided by OMSA, allows you to check the status of several components and to check for errors. This information allows you decide on what action you wish to be taken on the server and allows you to effectively troubleshoot any hardware related issues with the server.

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.

If you do encounter a physical drive with an error and you wish for this disk to be replaced, you will need to provide as much of the following information about the failed drive as possible, to allow our technicians to correctly identify which drive needs replacing:

1. Serial number

2. Type of drive (e.g. SSD, SATA HDD, etc.)

3. Capacity

4. Product ID

5. Physical Drive Bay Number

This information will aid the technician in locating the failed drive and swapping it with the correct replacement drive. You can use Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application to find this information.

To find this information, you must first access the OMSA’s GUI panel through the server’s web browser, and then locate the physical drive with the error. Please see the sections on accessing OMSA and then the section on investigation storage errors/checking storage status, if you are un-sure how to do this. Once you have found the physical drive with the error, you will be able to click the button to find more details about the drive, including the details required by our technicians to locate the drive. See the image below as an example of how to find the necessary information from the details of a physical drive:

To work out the drive’s physical bay number, you can use the ID of this drive in conjunction with all the other Physical Disks’ ID numbers. If you return to the list of all the Physical Disks, you can see the drive I wish to be replaced is drive 0:1:1, the first drive in the server is disk 0:1:0 and the last drive is 0:1:3. When asking the technicians to replace this drive, simply inform them of the failed drive’s ID number (e.g. 0:1:0) and inform them of the drive’s ID counting format (e.g. 0:1:0 to 0:1:3), as they should be able use this to locate the physical disk.

In addition to providing the information above, OMSA on most servers will also allow you to set the drive to ‘blink’, which can be used to help the technician locate the appropriate drive. To get the drive to blink, while on the page which lists all the Physical Disks, set the task to ‘blink’ in-line with the drive you wish to be swapped and then press Execute. This will then make the LED light on the drive’s caddy blink.

If you are able to set the drive to blink, please inform the technicians in the support ticket that you have done so. Some chassis may not allow you to perform this action, however. If you cannot set the drive bay to blink, this is most likely not a non-hot-swappable chassis, meaning this is not required.

When the technicians have completed any drive swap, you can use this same process to set the drive to ‘un-blink’, using the ‘un-blink’ task, to stop the drive bay blinking. It is important to do this, to make sure this drive bay isn’t still blinking during any further drive changes at a later date, as this may lead to some confusion.

Once you provide all this information in a support ticket and set the drive bay to blink (if possible), our technicians will be able to look into swapping the failed drive.

If the drive is missing from the OMSA monitoring completely (opposed to having an error), then you will not be able to provide the necessary information listed above to get the drive replaced, nor set the drive bay to blink. Instead, you can provide the information on all the drives still present on OMSA and their details, so that by process of elimination our technicians can identify and replace the missing drive.

Once you have provided all the information from the drives that are still present, the technicians should be able to identify the missing drive and replace it.

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.

If you do encounter an error related to the server’s memory (RAM) and you wish for a RAM stick to be replaced, you will need to provide as much of the following information about the failed stick as possible, to allow our technicians to correctly identify which RAM stick needs replacing:

1. The failed RAM stick’s DIMM slot number (i.e. the Connector Name)

2. The failed RAM stick’s size

3. The failed RAM stick’s type

This information will aid the technician in locating the failed RAM stick and swapping it with the correct replacement RAM. You can use Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application to find this information.

To find this information, you must first access the OMSA’s GUI panel through the server’s web browser, and then locate the RAM stick with the error. Please see the sections on accessing OMSA if you are unsure on how to access OMSA. To find the details about the memory configured in the server, first click on Main System Chassis and then Memory, in the left-hand-side panel.

Under Details of Memory Array you will be able to see a list of the RAM sticks attached to the motherboard, their status, their connector names, their type and their size. If a stick of RAM appears with an error, you will need to simply supply all the information about this RAM stick that appears in this table, in a support ticket, so that our technician can identify the failed DIMM and replace it. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Occasionally, if a RAM stick completely fails, it may not appear on this page with an error, but might actually be missing from this page all together. As an example, if your server is meant to be configured with 4x 16GB RAM sticks (or 64Gb of memory in total), but only 3x 16GB RAM sticks are appearing, then it is quite likely that a stick has completely failed and needs replacing. If this is the case, you will not be able to find the information above on the failed RAM stick, to get it replaced. Instead, you can provide the information on all the RAM sticks that are present without errors, so our technicians can locate the failed DIMM through a process of elimination. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Once you have provided all the above information in a support ticket, the technicians should be able to locate and replace the faulty RAM stick.

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.

If you do encounter an error related with a server’s CPU and you wish for it to be replaced, and if there is more than one CPU in this server, you will need to provide as much of the following information about the failed CPU as possible, to allow the technicians to correctly identify which CPU needs replacing:

1. The failed CPU’s slot number (i.e. the Connector Name)

2. The failed CPU’s Make and Model (i.e. Processor Brand information)

If your server only has one CPU installed, we do not require this information to locate and replace the CPU. Please feel free to raise a support ticket and we will be happy to help.

If you do have more than one CPU in the server, this information will aid our technician in locating the failed CPU and swapping it with the correct replacement CPU. You can use Dell EMC’s OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) application to find this information.

To find this information, you must first access the OMSA’s GUI panel through the server’s web browser, and then locate the CPU with the error. Please see the sections on accessing OMSA if you are un-sure how to access OMSA. To find the details about the CPUs configured in the server, first click on Main System Chassis and then click on Processors, on the left-hand-side panel.

Here you will now be able to see a list of the CPUs installed in the server, their make and model, their connector name and their specifications. If a CPU appears with an error, you will need to supply all the information about this CPU that appears in this table, in a support ticket, so that our technician can identify the failed processor and replace it. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Occasionally, if a CPU completely fails, it may not appear on this page with an error, but might actually be missing from this page all together. If this is the case, then you will not be able to find the information above on the failed CPU, to get it replaced. Instead, you can provide the information on all the CPUs that are present without errors on OMSA, so the technicians can locate the failed processor through a process of elimination. You can also supply a screenshot of this page.

Once you have provided all the above information in a support ticket, the technicians should be able to locate and replace the faulty CPU.

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 configured on the server, one way you can check the status of a server’s storage is through the server’s RAID configuration (BIOS) menu. You can use the server’s RAID menu to identify any failed drives and identify the details required to have them replaced.

Checking a server’s RAID menu 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 menu while the server boots. 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 configuration menu.

How to boot into a server’s RAID controller’s menu and check the drives’ and arrays’ statuses 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.

If you have a dedicated server hosted with us, you will be able to identify the make and model of your device through our MyServers control panel, on the IS page of the device.

First, log in to the MyServers control panel and then navigate to the IS page of the server you wish to check the model of. A list of servers can be found by clicking on the My Servers tab. Once you are on the IS page of the server, you will be able to find the make and model of the server within the Service Description box, in line with the IS number. In my example below, you can see that the make of my server is a Dell, while the model of the server is a PowerEdge R210 II.

Within the Service Description, you should also be able to see the model of the RAID Controller. If no RAID controller is present in this box, it may mean that either no RAID controller exists in the chassis, the RAID controller is built into the chassis’ motherboard (integrated), or that this device was deployed before we added RAID controllers to this box for every server. If the RAID controller is not present in this box, you can either identify what RAID controller the server is configured during the server’s POST screens, or please feel free to raise a ticket and we will be happy to help.

You should now know what the make and model of your server and RAID controller is. If you have any more questions about your server’s RAID controller, please look through our FAQ for more information. Alternatively, or if you have not been able to identify this information, please feel free to raise a ticket and we will be happy to help.

To check the RAID configuration menu of a 13th generation Dell EMC PowerEdge server (e.g. R230, R630, R730xd), when it has a H730 RAID controller installed (this includes H730Ps and H730P Minis), 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 System Setup menu to appear; then press F2 to enter it. Please note, depending on the BIOS settings of your server, your screen may look slightly different to the one below.

After pressing F2 at the prompt, and waiting for a minute or two, the System Setup screen will appear. You now need to select Device Settings. You can navigate through these menus using the mouse or using the arrow, Tab, Esc and Enter keys.

Now select the RAID controller.

You are now in the RAID controller’s menu. To check the status of the server’s storage, you should check the status of both the Virtual Disks and 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, select Virtual Disk Management.

You will now be presented with a list of all the Virtual Disks (or RAID arrays) configured in this server. You will also see some details about the Virtual Disks, including their status. In my example below, you can see that one Virtual Disk’s status is ‘Ready’, meaning that it has no errors, and one has a status of ‘Degraded’, meaning that there is an error with the RAID array. Click on a Virtual Disks to find more information on the array.

Here you can now see some details about the Virtual Disk and can select operations to perform. You can also choose to see a list of the physical drives configured within this array. If you have come across a Virtual Disk with an error, you should now view the associated Physical Disks to see the status of the drives. To do this, press View Associated Physical Disks.

You will now be able to see a list of Physical Disks configured within this array. You will be also see their status; which you can use to identify if there any errors with any drives. As you can see from my example below, the second drive in this array (1:03) is currently offline. If you do come across a drive with an error, you can now navigate to a page which allows you to view the information on the physical drive. To do this, tick the box in-line with the drive you wish to check and press View Physical Disk Properties.

You will be now be a on a screen which displays the physical drive’s details; including its current status and all the details needed by our technicians to replace a 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. Physical Drive Bay Number

2. Capacity

3. Model Number

4. Serial number

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 can 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, set the Operation drop-down box to ‘Blink’ and then press Go. Once the technicians have completed the drive swap, you can use this same process, except setting the drop-down box to ‘Un-Blink’, 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.

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 can also check the status of the Physical Disks directly. To do this, keep pressing Back (or Esc) until you return to the RAID controller’s main menu, and then select Physical Disk Management.

You will now see a list of Physical Disks present in the server, along with their current status. In my example, you can see that there are four drives, three are online and one is currently offline. To find out more information about a drive, simply click on it/select it.

You will now be on the physical drive’s page, which lists all of the drive’s details, allows you to run operations (or tasks) on the drive and shows you the drives’ status. As outlined above, you can use this page to identify all the information needed to get a drive replaced and set the drive to blink.

Using the process outlined above, you should be able to identify the current status of all the drives configured within the server and the status of all the Virtual Disks, and you can use this information to have any faulty drive replaced.

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.

To check the RAID Configuration menu of a 12th generation Dell EMC PowerEdge server (e.g. R320, R420, R720), when it has a H710 raid controller installed (this includes H710Ps and H710 minis), 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 System Setup menu to appear; then press F2 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 F2 at the prompt and waited a minute or two, the System Setup screen will appear. You now need to select Device Settings. You can either use the mouse or the arrow, Esc, Tab or Enter keys to navigate this menu.

Now select the RAID controller.

You are now in the RAID controller’s menu. To check the status of the server’s storage, you should check both the status of the Virtual Disks and 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, select Virtual Disk Management, then Manage Virtual Disk Properties.

You will now be presented with the details of the first RAID array configured on this controller. You can use the Select Virtual Disk drop-down box to navigate between the different RAID arrays, if more than one is configured on this device. Within the drop-down box you will also be able to see the status of the Virtual Disk. In my example below, you can see that there are two Virtual Disks, one with a status of ‘Ready’, meaning that the Virtual Disk has no errors, and one with a status of ‘Offline’, meaning that there is currently an error with this Virtual Disk.

Under ‘Virtual Disk Porperties’ you can see some details about the Virtual Disk selected in the drop-down box. You can also choose to see a list of the physical drives configured within this array. If you have come across a Virtual Disk with an error, you should now view the associated Physical Disks to see the status of the drives. To do this, press View Associated Physical Disks.

You will now be able to see a list of Physical Disks configured within this array. You will be also see their status; which you can use to identify if there are any errors with any drives. As you can see from my example below, the second drive in this array (1:03) is currently offline. If you do come across a drive with an error, you can use this window to view information on the physical drive. To do this, tick the box in-line with the drive you wish to check and press View Physical Disk Properties.

You will be now be a on a screen which displays the physical drive’s details; including its current status and all the details needed by our technicians to replace a 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. Physical Drive Bay Number

2. Capacity

3. Model Number

4. Serial number

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 can 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 flash, allowing the local technicians to identify the drive bay with greater ease. To do this, return to the RAID Controller’s main menu, then select Physical Disk Management. Then Select Physical Disk Operations.

You now need to select the drive you wish to be set to blink in the Select Physical Disk drop-down box, then press Blink. The drive bay should now be blinking. Once the technicians have completed the drive swap, you can use this same process, except pressing ‘Un-Blink’, 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.

Once you have supplied the above information and set the drive bay to blink, 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 can also check the Physical Disks directly. To do this, keep pressing Back until you return to the RAID controller’s main menu, then select Physical Disk Management, and then select View Physical Disk Properties.

You will now be presented with the details of the first Physical Drive configured on this controller. You can use the Select Physical Disk drop-down box to navigate between the different drives, if more than one is configured on this device. Within the drop-down box you will also be able to see the status of each Physical Drive. In my example below, you can see that there are four Physical Disks, three with a status of Ready, meaning that there are no errors, and one with a status of offline.

To find out more details about a Physical Disk, select it in the drop-down box. You will now see all of the drive’s details and see the drives’ status, under Physical Disk Properties. As outlined above, you can use this page to identify all the information needed to get a drive replaced and you can navigate to the operations page to set the drive to blink.

Using the process outlined above, you should be able to identify the current status of all the drives configured within the server and the status of all the Virtual Disks, and you can use this information to have any faulty drive replaced.

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.

To check the RAID BIOS of a 12th generation Dell EMC PowerEdge server (e.g. R320, R420, R720), 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 System Setup menu to appear; then press F2 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 F2 at the prompt and waited a minute or two, the System Setup screen will appear. You now need to select Device Settings. You can navigate this menu by either using the mouse or the arrow, Tab, Esc and Enter keys.

Now select the RAID controller.

You are now in the RAID controller’s menu. 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, select Virtual Disk Management, then Manage Virtual Disk Properties.

You will now be presented with the details of the first RAID array configured on this controller. You can use the Select Virtual Disk drop-down box to navigate between the different RAID arrays, if more than one is configured on this device. Within the drop-down box you will also be able to see the status of the Virtual Disk. In my example below, you can see that there are two Virtual Disks, one with a status of ‘Ready’, meaning that there are no errors with this Virtual Disk, and one with a status of ‘Failed’, meaning that there is currently an error with this Virtual Disk.

Under Virtual Disk Policies you can now see some details about the Virtual Disk selected in the drop-down box. You can also choose to see a list of the physical drives configured within this array. If you have come across a Virtual Disk with an error, you should now check the status of the physical drives configured within this array. To do this, press View Associated Physical Disks.

You will now be able to see a list of Physical Disks configured within this array. You will also see their status; which you can use to identify if there any errors with any drives. As you can see from my example below, the only drive in this array is currently offline. If you do come across a drive with an error, you can now navigate to a page to view the physical drive’s details. To do this, tick the box in-line with the drive you wish to check and press View Physical Disk Properties.

You will be now be a on a screen which displays the physical drive’s details; including its current status and all the details needed by our technicians to replace a 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. Physical Drive Bay Number

2. Capacity

3. Model Number

4. Serial number

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 can 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 flash, allowing the local technicians to identify the drive bay with greater ease. To do this, return to the RAID Controller’s main menu, then select Physical Disk Management. Then Select Physical Disk Operations.

You now need to select the drive you wish to be set to blink in the Select Physical Disk drop-down box, then press Blink. The drive bay should now be blinking. Once the technicians have completed the drive swap, you can use this same process, except pressing ‘Un-Blink’, 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.

Once you have supplied the above information and set the drive bay to blink, 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 can also check the Physical Disks directly. To do this, keep pressing Back (or Esc) until you return to the RAID controller’s main menu, then select Physical Disk Management, and then select View Physical Disk Properties.

You will now be presented with the details of the first Physical Drive configured on this controller. You can use the Select Physical Disk drop-down box to navigate between the different drives, if more than one is configured on this device. Within the drop-down box you will also be able to see the status of each Physical Drive. In my example below, you can see that there are four Physical Disks; three with a status of ‘Ready’, meaning that they currently do not have any errors, and one with a status of ‘Offline’.

To find out more details about a Physical Disk, select it in the drop-down box. You will now see all of the drive’s details and see the drives’ status under Physical Disk Properties. As outlined above, you can use this page to identify all the information needed to get a drive replaced and you can navigate to the operations page to set the drive to blink.

Using the process outlined above, you should be able to identify the current status of all the drives configured within the server and the status of all the Virtual Disks, and you can use this information to have any faulty drive replaced.

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.

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.

To check the RAID BIOS of an 11th generation Dell EMC PowerEdge server (e.g. R210, R210 II, R310, R410), when it has a H200 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 appears; then press Ctrl+C 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+C at the prompt and waited a minute or two, the RAID BIOS configuration menu will appear. To check the status of the server’s storage, you should first select the RAID controller and then select RAID properties. If more than one RAID controller is configured in this server, you will need to repeat the process outlined below for every RAID controller. To navigate through this RAID BIOS, you need to use the arrow, Enter and Esc keys. Select the RAID controller and then RAID properties.

Unless a RAID array has not already been configured on the server, you will now be presented with the first RAID arrays (or volume), a list of drives configured within this array, their details, their status and the details of the RAID array configured on the server. If you have more than one RAID array configured on the server, you can use the keys Alt+N to navigate between the volumes.

Along the top of the page, you will be able to see the details of the RAID array currently selected (press Alt+N to navigate to the next page), including its current status.

Below the RAID array’s details you will be able to see a list of the physical drives configured within the currently select array (press Alt+N to navigate to the next page); including the drives’ details and their current statuses.

You can use the details and statuses shown on the pages described above to identify whether or not there is currently an error with the storage of your server, by checking if there is an error with either the RAID arrays (or volumes) or the Physical Drives.

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. Slot Number

2. Drive Type (Device + Identifier)

3. Capacity (Size)

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.

Once you have supplied the above information our support team will be happy to help get your drive replaced.

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.

To check the RAID BIOS of a SuperMicro server, when it has a LSI MegaRAID 9240-4i 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 IPMI 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 LSI MegRAID configuration menu to appear; then press Ctrl+H 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+H at the prompt and waited a minute or two, you will be presented with a list of adapters configured on the server. You should now enter the first RAID adapter configured on the server. Most servers will only have one adapter installed, but if your server has more than one adapter, you should repeat the below process for every adapter.

You will now be in on the WebBIOS page for this RAID controller. On the right hand side panel of this WebBIOS, within the Logical View, you will be able to see a list of Virtual Drives (or RAID arrays), and a list of Physical Drives configured within the controller and their current status. You can use this screen to identify if and Virtual Drives or Physical Drives attached to this controller have any errors. In my example below, you can see that one Virtual Drive is degraded and one Physical Drive is Offline.

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 and replace it:

1. Slot Number

2. Drive Type

3. Capacity

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.

Once you have supplied the above information our support team will be happy to help get your drive replaced.

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.

To check the RAID BIOS of a SuperMicro server, when it has an Adaptec 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 IPMI 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 Adaptec RAID Configuration menu appears; then press Ctrl+A to enter it. Please note, depending on the BIOS settings of your server, your screen may look slightly different to the one below. Also, the below uses a 5405 RAID controller; however, the RAID BIOS for a 2405 controller is very similar.

You will now be presented with the RAID controller’s configuration utility. You should now select Array Configuration Utility. To navigate through this utility, use the arrow, Enter and Esc keys.

To check the current status of the storage within the server, you should first check the current status of all the RAID arrays configured on the server. Do this by first selecting Manage Arrays.

You will now be presented with a list of arrays. To check the status of the RAID array, press Enter while it is highlighted. You will now be presented with the RAID array’s details, its status, and a list of drives within the array. In my example below you can see the RAID1 array is currently degraded. You can see the second drive in this array (Dev01) is greyed out; which indicates that it currently has an error.

If you do identify a drive with an error and wish for it to be replaced, you will need to supply the following information to our technicians in a support ticket, so that our technicians can identify the drive correctly and replace it:

1. Slot Number

2. Drive Type

3. Capacity

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 can also turn on the Identify Drive function. Turning on the Identify Drive function will set the LED lights on the drive bay to blink, allowing the local technicians to identify the drive bay with greater ease. Please note, using the Identify Drive function will require the server to remain within the Adaptec Utility menu to keep the drive bay blinking. To set the drive bay to blink, keep pressing Esc until you reach the options menu. Then select Disk Utilities.

It will now take a minute or two to load the list of physical drives. You now need to highlight the drive you wish to set the LEDs to blink on and then press enter.

Then select Identify Drive and press Enter.

The caddy’s LED for this drive will now start flashing. To stop the LEDs from flashing, you simply need to press any key. If you have set the drive bay’s LED to flash, please let the support team know in the ticket.

Once you have supplied the above information our support team will be happy to help get your drive replaced.

You should repeat the above mentioned process, checking every RAID array configured on this server.

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.

To check the RAID BIOS of an HP ProLiant G9 server (e.g. HP Proliant DL160 G9), when it has a HPE Smart Array P440 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 iLO 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 will need to wait for the option to enter the System Utilities to appear, and then press F9 to enter it. Please note, depending on the BIOS settings of your server, your screen may look slightly different to the one below.

After the Systems Utilities menu appears, select System Configuration, then select the Smart Array P440 Controller option, then finally select the Exit and launch HP Smart Storage Administrator (HPSSA) option.

The HPE Smart Storage Administrator will now load; this can take a couple of minutes. Once it has loaded, you can use this menu to check the current status of the storage, of your server. To check the status of the server’s storage, you should check the status of the server’s Arrays and the Physical Drives.

First, select the RAID controller of your server, in the left hand side panel. In my example below, you can see that I have two controllers. One is the on-board (integrated) RAID controller - the Dynamic Smart Array B140i RAID - and the other is a PCI-e RAID controller - the Smart Array P440. The storage of my server is currently only utilising the PCI-e RAID controller; which will be the case of most servers which display both; however, you should check every controller present for arrays and drives. Once you have clicked onto the RAID controller, press Configure.

Then press Logical Devices on the left hand side panel.

You will now be presented with a list of arrays configured on this controller and a list of the drives configured within these arrays. You can use this page to identify the current status of your server’s storage status.

If there are any errors with either an array or with a drive, there will be one of two warning symbols next to the device’s icon. There are two warning symbols within the HPESSA; the symbol represents a critical error which needs urgent attention, while the symbol represents a less crucial error should be address as soon as possible. In my example below, you can see that one array and one drive within this array, have errors.

If you do encounter a drive with an error, you should click on the device and then press View more Details, to identify what the error is and to see more details about this device.

The device details will appear at the top of the window appears, while the Status Message appears at the bottom of this window, which will provide you with more information on the error.

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 and replace it:

1. Capacity (Size)

2. Drive Type

3. Drive Model

4. Drive Serial Number

You can use the ‘View more details’ page to identify this information. Select the drive you wish to be replaced and then press ‘View more details’.

You can use this page to identify the above information, as demonstrated below.

If you wish for a drive to be replaced, you can also turn on the Identify Device function. Turning on the Identify Device function will set the LED lights on the drive bay to blink, allowing the local technicians to identify the drive bay with greater ease. To do this, click close on the ‘View more details’ window, and then click Identify Device while the drive you wish to be swapped is still selected under the list of devices.

Then select how long you wish for the drive bay to blink for or when you wish for it to turn off. We would suggest setting the LED to stop blinking after 4 hours. Then press OK and then Finish.

If you do set the drive bay to blink, please let our technicians know in the support ticket. Once you have supplied the above information and set the drive bay to blink, our support team will be happy to help get your drive replaced.

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.

To check the RAID BIOS of an HP ProLiant G7 server (e.g. HP Proliant DL360 G7), when it has a HP Smart Array P410 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 iLO 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 will need to wait for the option to enter the System Utilities to appear, and then press F9 to enter it. Please note, depending on the BIOS settings of your server, your screen may look slightly different to the one below.

You now need to make sure that Power-On Logo is disabled; as this allow you to see more options, including the one for entering the RAID menu, to appear during POST. To do this, first select Advanced Options. You can use the arrow keys, Enter and Esc to navigate through the BIOS menu.

Then select Advances System ROM Options.

Now select Power-On Logo and make sure it is set to Disabled, by making sure Disabled is highlighted, and press enter.

Once you have set the Power-On Logo to disabled, you can now exit the BIOS menu, by press Esc multiple times and then press F10 to Confirm Exit Utility. The server will now start to reboot.

When the option to enter the HP Smart Array P410 controller appears, you should now press F8, to enter the controller’s utility menu.

You will now be in the main menu for the RAID controller’s utility. To check the current status of your server’s storage, you should check each array configured on your server’s status, and the status of each physical drive configured within these arrays. To do this, first select View Logical Drive.

You will now be presented with a list of Logical Drives (or arrays) configured on the server. You will be able to see their details and their statuses. In my example below, you can see that I have two RAID Arrays; one with a status of ‘OK’ and one with a status of ‘Degraded’.

Once you have checked the status of the RAID arrays, you should now check the status of the Physical Drives within these arrays. To do this, highlight an array and press Enter.

You will now be presented with a list of Physical Drives configured within this array; and you will be able to see their statuses and details. In my example below, you can see that one drive has a status of OK and one drive is degraded.

If you do identify a drive with an error and wish for it to be replaced, you will need to supply the following information to our technicians in a support ticket, so that our technicians can identify the drive correctly and replace it:

1. Bay Number

2. Capacity

3. Drive Type

You can use this page to identify this information, as demonstrated below. You can also supply a screenshot of this page in a support ticket.

Once you have supplied the above information in a ticket our support team will be happy to help get your drive replaced.

You should repeat the process outline above, to check the status of the physical drives within each RAID array.

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.

Our MyServers control panel has a built in monitoring system which can be used to monitor certain services.

Depending on the service support level you purchased with the device, certain monitoring systems are automatically put in place on the IS page of the device, to monitor the status of specific serveries or pieces of hardware. You will be able to see these monitoring services on the IS page of the server, on MyServers, within the ‘Status’ section. In my example below you can see that this server has ping, SSH and switch port monitoring applied.

If you wish for additional monitoring services to be added to an IS page of a device, you are able to add these monitoring services in the MyServers control panel by clicking on Health > Monitoring, on the IS page.

You will now be on the monitoring page for this device. Here you will be able to see a list of the current monitoring services applied to this IS number. You can also add additional monitoring services by clicking on Add Monitored Service.

Once you have pressed Add Monitored Service button you will be presented with a page where you can configure new monitoring services for this device. To do this, first select what type of monitoring service you wish to be added from the drop-down box. Depending on the monitoring service you select, you will then need to fill in other details relevant to the service you wish to be monitored. Examples include IP addresses, port numbers and URLs. Once you have filled in these relevant details, you can also add a custom message to the monitoring service. If you later decide to add SMS or email monitoring alerts to this device, this custom message will appear in the email/text if this monitoring service detects an error, which you can use to help you identify which monitoring service for which device has failed. Once you have filled in these details, press Add Monitored Service.

The monitoring service will now be added. You will now be returned to the monitoring page were you will now be able to see the status of the service you just added, amongst the statuses of any other monitoring service already applied to IS page. Please note that any monitoring service just applied may take a couple of minutes to register the status as Ok. You can now add any other monitoring service you wish to add.

You can also use this page to remove monitoring service that you no longer need.

If you need help adding monitoring services to your device, or if you have any more questions about MyServers monitoring, please feel free to raise a ticket and a member of our support team will be happy to help.

Our monitoring services are run through and displayed on our MyServers control panel. Once monitoring services have been set-up on your devices, to check the current status of your devices, first log in to your MyServers account. Once you have logged into your account, if any devices on your account with monitoring services configured on them currently have an error causing a monitoring service to fail, it will appear in a Servers with Problems section on the home screen (My Account) page.

If no devices with monitoring services applied have an error which causes these services to fail, then this section will not appear.

To check the status of a device’s monitoring services, you first need to navigate to this device’s IS page. Once you are on the IS page of the device, you will be able to see the current status of each monitoring service applied to this device within the Status box. You will be able to see the current status of each monitoring service, how long the monitoring service has been in its current state and the name of each monitoring service. You may also be able to see some detail about the monitoring service; like an IP address or URL. In my example below you can see that one my device’s ping monitoring services has been in a failed state for 7 minutes.

You can use this information to identify the current status of each monitoring service. If you want to find out more details about a monitoring service, click on its name. You will now be presented with the test result page for this monitoring service. You will now be able to see this monitoring service’s current status, when the status was last updated, how long it has been in its current status, the error and the status results recent history.

You can use this information to find out more details about any error that may have occurred. If you do encounter any monitoring issues that you need assistance with, please feel free to raise a support ticket and we will be happy to help.

If you have any more questions about MyServers monitoring, please look through our FAQs or raise a ticket, and we will be happy to help.

We provide automated SMS and email alerting for free, to all our clients, which can be used to help alert you to any status issue detected by our system with your devices.

Our SMS and email alerting system, once it has been setup on an IS page of one or more devices, automatically sends a text to a designated phone number or email address if any of the MyServers monitoring tools configured on this IS page detects an issue. The most common example of a monitoring system applied to a server, and then configured to send a text/email if an error occurs, is ping monitoring. Using this as an example, if the server fails to ping for a set amount of time, then a text/email would automatically be sent.

You can setup the SMS and email monitoring system on the IS page of your devices, on the MyServers control panel. Please see our ‘How do I set up SMS alerting?’ and ‘How do I set up email alerting?’ sections of our FAQ to see how to do this.

If you have any more questions on alerting, please look through our FAQ or raise a support ticket, and we will be happy to help.

You can set up SMS alerting for a device on its MyServers IS page. To do this, first load the IS page of a device you wish to add SMS alerting to, then click on Health > Alerts on the right hand side.

This page will list all the alerts currently configured for this device, if any exist. To add a new alert, first click Add An Alert.

You will now be presented with a page where you can configure the alert you wish to receive. Please input the following details:

• Alert Type - Select SMS to receive a text message

• Number - Enter the phone number you wish to receive the SMS. Please make sure you enter the area code (normally +44 for UK phone numbers)

• Initial Delay - Enter the delay before the text is sent in minutes. This is the period of time a monitoring service has to fail before the message is sent

• Repeat alert after - Enter the time you wish to pass before an additional message is sent if a monitoring service continues to fails, in minutes

• Use the tick boxes to indicate if you wish to be messages in instances of a warning status, failure status, or both. Some monitoring services have three statuses - OK, Warning and Failure. Some monitoring services may only go into a warning state, rather than a failed state, if a less critical error occurs.

Once you have filled in the above, press Add Alert.

The new alert will now appear on the Alerts page. You can now add additional alerts, edit the current alerts or delete any alert you no longer need on this page.

If you have any more questions about alerts, please look through our FAQ or raise a ticket, and we will be happy to help.

You can set up email alerting for a device on its MyServers IS page. To do this, first load the IS page of a device you wish to add email alerting to, then click on Health > Alerts on the right hand side.

This page will list all the alerts currently configured for this device, if any exist. To add a new alert, first click Add An Alert.

You will now be presented with a page where you can configure the alert you wish to receive. Please input the following details:

• Alert Type - Select Email

• E-Mail Address - Then enter the email address you wish to receive the email

• Initial Delay - Enter the delay before the email is sent in minutes. This is the period of time a monitoring service has to fail before the email is sent

• Repeat alert after - Enter the time you wish to pass before an additional email is sent if a monitoring service continues to fails, in minutes

• Use the tick boxes to select if you wish to be emailed in instances of a warning status, failure status, or both. Some monitoring services have three statuses - OK, Warning and Failure. Some monitoring services may only go into a warning state, rather than a failed state, if a less critical error occurs.

Once you have filled in the above, press Add Alert.

The new alert will now appear on the Alerts page. You can now add additional alerts, edit the current alerts or delete any alert you no longer need on this page.

If you have any more questions about alerts, please look through our FAQ section or raise a ticket, and we will be happy to help.