I've got an older Dell R720 server that's currently not in production. Recently, I've noticed it has a drive showing as 'failed' with an amber light in the RAID 5 array of SATA SSDs, which seems like a good chance for some hands-on troubleshooting. What's puzzling is that the iDRAC 7 Enterprise indicates that storage is green at first glance, but digging deeper reveals that the Virtual Disk is actually 'Degraded,' while the physical disks appear green and online. When checking the Server Administrator, that same problematic disk is labeled as 'Non-Critical.' The lack of clarity from both interfaces is quite frustrating. I've also looked for any disk firmware updates using the SUU and DSU tools, but SUU keeps reporting the same updates and doesn't succeed in installing them, while DSU claims there are no updates available. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
5 Answers
I have a R730 that showed all blue lights, but the drive had issues, making the server slow. After I removed the drive, iDRAC labeled it as degraded, but there was no amber light. Support sent me a replacement drive, and now it's showing correctly when I pull a drive. It might be a good idea to contact support if you're stuck!
We had a similar issue with our R740 servers. The problem stemmed from the SAS controller, which was causing inconsistent readings. Once we replaced the controller and the faulty disks, everything was back to normal again!
The iDRAC 7 and 8 firmware often need updates, especially since these servers are getting older. Ensure both the iDRAC firmware and the RAID controller are up to date. Dell might not support the 12th Gen servers anymore in tools like OpenManage Enterprise. Manually checking the firmware updates with the server's Service Tag on Dell's support site can be helpful. And don't forget the classic trick: cut the power completely and drain the flea power for a reset!
If you export the SupportAssist logs, you might find more detailed info about what's causing the issue. It's worth a shot!
I've had this strange situation too with incorrect data between the controller and iDRAC. Sometimes, simply rebooting the iDRAC can solve the problem. Have you tried that?
Thanks for the input! I've dug around and found that there are indeed firmware updates needed for the drives, according to the Server Administrator. It's odd that DSU says there are no updates though. Any tips?