Monitor Health of Drives

[TheVMEvolution]

In a regular Linux Machine, I would monitor the health of my drives by using smartctl.

However how can I monitor the health of my 4 drives (in hardware RAID10) on a VMWare ESXi 5 server? I have tech support mode/SSH enabled but I believe smartctl isn't supported as ESXi isnt linux(?)

[admin]

Hi TheVMEvolution

Welcome to the communites

The closest I could get to monitor the RAID was to see it through vSphere Client - under Configuration/Health Status.

"Life is never easy for those who dream"

[Nikhil_Patwa]

Hi,

You can also get information of your hard drives from Hardware Status tab --> Storage

Hardware status tab is available for all ESXi hosts and provides information of all hardware components.

Hope the information is useful

Nikhil

[venkyVM]

You can use CIM to monitor and Hardware Status tab --> Storage (VC) , Configuration --> Health Status will provide the same view. However Since you use vSphere 5 , if you are using LSI RAID Controllers you will need to install the LSI CIM Provider from http://www.lsi.com/Pages/user/eula.aspx?file=http%3a%2f%2fwww.lsi.com%2fdownloads%2fPublic%2fMegaRAI... . Once you are done with the install your RAID information will show up in the VI Client / VC Hardware Status.

[TheVMEvolution]

I don't see anything that tells me the health of my drives in configuration.

I'm using 3ware 9690SA-4i

[john23]

Generally server vendors provide the hardware management bundle for esxi.. I remember using HP one...

Can you check out,

[TheVMEvolution]

Do you think that I am missing a driver or something?

I mentioned the RAID card I used above, please let me know what I need to do in order for it to show and detect the health of it in VMWare ESXi.

I have 4 drives in a RAID10 configuration.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You'll need to check on the 3ware (LSI) website to see if they offer a CIM provider for this controller.  ESXi relies on CIM providers to  gather health data from hardware components.  Without a CIM provider ESXi is not able to veiw the adapter health status or the health of the drives connected to it.

[venkyVM]

Did you try Installing this CIM provider ? http://www.lsi.com/Pages/user/eula.aspx?file=http%3a%2f%2fwww.lsi.com%2fdownloads%2fPublic%2fMegaRAI...

[beckham007fifa]

I think IBM  director provides this facility and Vcops would be the best to monitor closely and if you are not willing to get licensed product then you can leverage vcenter functionality and have alarm configuration done and they could turn into a gr8 purchase in certain situaltions.