How can I know if one of disk partitions are failed when using RAID 5 on my SQL Server 2005. I asked this question because I know that in case of one disk failure, my work will not effected because my data still available.



Mohd A. Shalabi

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Mohd A. Shalabi

Mohd,

There are tools and products out there that will do this for you. I am not a "hardware" guy but I asked my hardware guy and he said there were plenty of tools out there that do this. I can have him supply a name or two if you need. Let me know.



Scott Klein
Author - Professional SQL Server 2005 XML
http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTit...764597922.html

yes please, my server is dell

Mohd A. Shalabi

There should be documentation that came with the SCSI card or the Raid Array that identify how to tell if one of the disks failed. And, you should be able to use the windows systems tools to find out if the disk is active and viable.

--Jeff Moden

You need to look at the utility software for the RAID controller.

If you have a Dell server, you may also have a Dell Array controller card, or could have a controller card from another manufacturer, so the first thing to do is go look in device manager (start -> run -> devmgmt.msc ) and look for the raid controller hardware details.

Then go looking for the utility software that came with the controller. If this isnt installed, then you will need to download it from the support site for the array controller.

Once you have the array controller utility running you can look at each of the Arrays configured on the controller. There should be some way to see the status of each array. In most cases this includes some kind of "traffic light" ( red = failed, yellow = a problem, green = OK)

If your array has a disk failure the array will be highlighted in some way.

You should replace the failed disk ASAP, and then expect a fairly serious performance degradation while the new disk is rebuilt into the array.

You should also take a full backup ASAP as with one disk failed, if another goes you will loose everything on the array.

Co Author "Professional SQL Server 2005 Administration"

As I recall raid 10 is generally suggested for RDBMS configurations. (just my two cents)

Thats correct, the recomendation is to use RAID 10, however its not always possible due to cost constraints.

Also in some circumstances is not necesary. A good example is a reporting server I run which is a read only copy of an online system. For this database I use RAID 0 (disk stripe) as this gives me the most space, and highest performance for the least cost. I dont need to worry about recovery as I reload the whole DB every night. If a disk fails the server can be down for a few days while I wait for a replacement disk.

The key point here is to understand your requirements and make informed decisions based on the criteria that are important to you.



Steve Wort
Co Author "Professional SQL Server 2005 Administration"

that works, more cost generally gives you greater protection. Raid 10 better than Raid 0 for database but costs more. Frankly I tend tward no use of raid at all and setting up some sort of fail over system when practical.