[TriLUG] How do you know when a RAID array is BROKE?

[Matt Nash]

In the case of Dell's hardware RAID, it quietly implodes and fails to 
flash the handy "I'm broken" light on the front of the drive.

David Brain wrote:
> Using software raid there is a util called 'mdadm' that as one of its
> (many) functions can be set up to email you in the event of a disk
> failure.
>
> And, yes, you could alternatively just write a script to monitor the
> logs (or /proc/mdstat for software RAID).  This is probably the only
> way to do it for hardware RAID, absent some provided software.
>
> By default, you'd probably never know, although disk performance might
> drop, until enough drives failed to kill the array - this is probably
> not the way you want to be notified.
>
> David.
>
> On 3/16/06, Randall Barlow <randall_barlow at ncsu.edu> wrote:
>   
>> With all the RAID stuff lately, one question came to mind (from someone
>> who has never used RAID but is thinking about it :)): how do you know
>> when a disk has failed?  Do you just have to keep reading the logs, or
>> do you configure the system to drop you an e-mail or what?  What does it
>> do by default?
>>
>> --
>> Randy Barlow
>> Research Assistant
>> Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
>> North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
>> randall_barlow at ncsu.edu
>> http://www.electronsweatshop.com
>>
>>
>>
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