Hi,

 

I was curious to now how you can spot failed drives. I ve seen that some enclosures/raid cards support something called sideband connectors supposeldy carrying diagnostic/status signals of the HDD to LED s on the front of the enclosures but how does this work with software raid and enclosures shown here by limetech? I also seem to remember having read somewhere that the SATA protocoll can mediate this information itself without needing any external sideband connectors w/e. Would that be via S.M.A.R.T?

 

I would very much like to be able to spot exactly which drive/s has failed.

 

Currently planning a build in a Cooler Master Centurion 590 using a Supermicro C2SEA

with 2 x Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 hooked up to 3 x RaidSonic (RaidSonic Icy Box IB-555SSK) that will be running unRAID.

The most common way to notice a failure is on the unRAID web interface.  If a drive appears as any color except for green, then there may be a problem.  unRAID itself does not send any special signals to the LEDs on the front of the case.

 

However, another way that you may notice at least one type of problem (a drive failure) is if all the drives except for one are busy whenever a you read or write to the failed drive.  As unRAID emulates a failed drive by using every other drive, if you ever saw all of the LEDs on your drive cages except for one blinking away unexpectedly, then that could tip you off that you have a drive failure (the drive that is not blinking).

The most common way to notice a failure is on the unRAID web interface.  If a drive appears as any color except for green, then there may be a problem.

 

With the exception of the parity drive which will show as orange/red when parity is being built/rebuilt.

 

Sorry Raj...just didn't want someone to freak out when they see an orange dot next to the parity.  haha

 

John

Good point, though if your parity drive is rebuilding unexpectedly then that might be an indication of a problem!

Does unRAID use the S.M.A.R.T info from a drive to determine it s health/status?

 

Is it possible to configure unRAID to alert via sms, mail or anything else and if so, what info is sent?

No, unRAID does not use SMART, but unMenu (a community add-on) does.  You can also run SMART manually from the console/telnet.

 

Yes, it is possible to configure unRAID to email you, but again that requires the use of community add-ons like unMenu, it isn't part of stock unRAID.  Info such as drive temps, drive status, parity check status, preclear status, etc. can be sent in these messages.