Windows XP software (onboard) raid monitor?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
ViviTheMage

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
I have 5 1TB Seagate HDD's I picked up on the cheap, so I was going to raid 5 them.

Anyone know of any good (free/cheap) software that will monitor the drives/health/errors for me that can run ON the box the raid 5 is on?
 
Last edited:
ViviTheMage

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
Abit ip35 is the board.
ICH9R

Serial ATA
6 x SATA 3Gb/s offer by Intel® ICH9R support Intel® Matrix Storage Tech(AHCI & RAID0/1/5/10)
 
Last edited:
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
0
0
The Intel Matrix Storage Manager comes with a "RAID Monitor Service", but I have no idea how good it is or what it measures or how it alarms (if it alarms at all).

"This installs the user interface (i.e. Intel® Matrix Storage Console),
the tray icon service, and the monitor service onto the system, allowing you to
monitor the health of your RAID volume and/or hard drives."

As far I as I can tell, the ICH9R chipset blocks SMART and temperature monitoring signals so they can't get to the OS.
 
Last edited:
ViviTheMage

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
Yeah, I saw that..I don't think they have the capabilities of alerting of issues.

How would I go about rebuilding incase of failure? Through that intel matrix storage console? hmmm
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
0
0
ViviTheMage said:
Yeah, I saw that..I don't think they have the capabilities of alerting of issues.
Click to expand...
A brief search indicated the Intel RAID Monitoring Service writes to Windows Event Logs, so it'd be possible to run a third-party program or write a script that would send an email if certain Events occur. Normally, I don't use RAID controllers that can't send email, so I've tended to avoid the embedded Intel RAID chips.
 
ViviTheMage

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
Ahhh, what a pain it is! I tried installing the intel matrix storage, but it said something was missing. I have not installed my drives yet, so I have a feeling I have a pretty big headache to look forward to to get this working.

I might just get a cheapo $100 raid card.
 
E

Emulex

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
9,759
1
71
intel matrix raid is mostly software raid - it sucks. get a real raid card.

real raid cards auto-scrub during periods of inactivity and usually have a more sophisticated mib/snmp/email alerting agent and or a noisy beeper :) to let you know when things are not right.

the time between failure and fix needs to be as little as possible as due to murphy's law that is likely when another failure will occur
 
ViviTheMage

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
I know why i'd get a real raid card, but I am trying to save myself 100-150 bucks if I can.

Does the intel matrix raid software monitor at all?

Is there no third party software that will?
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
0
0
Here's the first result from a Google search for "intel raid monitoring service event log":

http://communities.intel.com/message/64880;jsessionid=B99D38CD0B05467756482EA6E1387F1C.node3COMS

"I did some more digging, it looks like there is some event notification via popup balloons, and the events are written to the Windows event log, but no SMTP notification

Quote from the help file:
========

The Event Monitor is a system service that is installed on the system with the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager application. When installed, this service is executed at user logon and runs in the background while the system is in use. The Event Monitor communicates with the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager driver, Intel® Matrix Storage Console, and the tray icon applet to ensure that the statuses of the three components are synchronized, and to provide event notifications. When an event occurs, the Event Monitor causes the system tray icon applet to show the Intel Matrix Storage Manager tray icon, which then shows a balloon message or dialog box describing the event. The event types that can trigger a notification include RAID volume state changes, a hard drive input/output (I/O) error, or a hard drive SMART event. When one of these events occurs, the Event Monitor logs the event in the NT Event Log and the Intel Matrix Storage Manager event log.

========

Amazingly the Matrix Storage Manager 8.x User's manual has no mention of the Event Manager.

I have installed Matrix RAID Storage Console ona Windows 2008 R2 Server, which has a pair of mirrored drives. From looking at the Task Manager Process list, I could see the Event Manager process was called "IANNTmon". I went into Server Manager, Event Viewer, and created a custom view named "Intel Matirx RAID", and filtered all the events in the Application Log for "IANNTmon". The filter also automatically added the "iaStor" and "iaStorV", so they must be related. Saved the filter, and voila! I can immediately see all events in the logs relating to the Matrix RAID monitoring. Stil no SMTP notification, but at least I can look at the event log history. I may add system log drive error notices to this filter as well, if I can figure out the error number or a keyword to search upon.

Intel, here's a feature request: Please add event notification via SMTP to the Intel Matrix RAID Storage Console.

Thanks, Chris"
 
O

Old Hippie

Diamond Member
Oct 8, 2005
6,361
1
0
Does the intel matrix raid software monitor at all?
Click to expand...

Yep and it does just fine.

It'll let you know when somethings not right and will let you verify the array, add disks, whatever.

I'm running the newest one 9.5.0.1037 and it may still be a BETA.
 
E

Emulex

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
9,759
1
71
newer versions for newer chipsets. like the nvidia drivers sometimes the newest isn't the greatest.

not many people use intel matrix raid with server 2008 :) - the software raid thats built into windows 2008 is better. that is a fact.
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
0
0
Emulex said:
not many people use intel matrix raid with server 2008 :) - the software raid thats built into windows 2008 is better. that is a fact.
Click to expand...
I recently attended an Intel technical seminar where a very senior Intel technical person advised the audience to NOT use Intel Matrix RAID. When asked why, he saiid, "Because it loses data."
 
ViviTheMage

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
RebateMonger said:
I recently attended an Intel technical seminar where a very senior Intel technical person advised the audience to NOT use Intel Matrix RAID. When asked why, he saiid, "Because it loses data."
Click to expand...

They why invent it, and make it public?

Emulex said:
newer versions for newer chipsets. like the nvidia drivers sometimes the newest isn't the greatest.

not many people use intel matrix raid with server 2008 :) - the software raid thats built into windows 2008 is better. that is a fact.
Click to expand...

Which would require a total rebuild :(

For future reference, how would I go about setting it up to have 2008 handle the raid? How would I setup the BIOS controller, and RAID controller?
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
0
0
ViviTheMage said:
For future reference, how would I go about setting it up to have 2008 handle the raid? How would I setup the BIOS controller, and RAID controller?
Click to expand...
Actually, you can't. I keep forgetting you are using RAID 5 (I never use RAID 5 on my servers). While Windows Server can handle software RAID 5 for a data array, it can't do RAID 5 for the array holding the system files.

If you want to boot to RAID 5, you'll want to stick with your Intel RAID or use a RAID card. Just keep an eye on your array health and make backups of anything important and you'll be fine.
 
E

Emulex

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
9,759
1
71
you'd think with U/EFI they'd eventually figure out this issue.

6 sata in raid-5? man i hope you have a hot spare or two
 
ViviTheMage

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
Old Hippie said:
Yep and it does just fine.

It'll let you know when somethings not right and will let you verify the array, add disks, whatever.

I'm running the newest one 9.5.0.1037 and it may still be a BETA.
Click to expand...

I installed the driver, 9.5...ATTO benchmark noticed some changes. But I don't have any other options in the storage console. Since that's still 8.9

I was hoping to see S.M.A.R.T on all the array drives, or at least some sort of health check...alerting system, shrug.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom