Rapid Storage UI and Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V

[idata]

Hi guys,

The fact is that Rapid Storage driver (included with OS) works just fine with free 2008 r2 hyper-v. Why shouldn't they, it is a Windows 2008 R2 OS without some functionality so it is supported by Intel. Sort of.

The problem is that I can't install UI on the server for some reason. Thus I wonder how can I get the real-time information about my RAID arrays.

Anybody?

[INF]

Installing C:\Windows\Temp\IIF2\Drivers\x64\iaStor.inf INF = C:\Windows\Temp\IIF2\Drivers\x64\iaStor.inf Execute command: C:\Windows\Temp\IIF2\x64\Drv64.exe -driverinf "C:\Windows\Temp\IIF2\Drivers\x64\iaStor.inf" -flags 20 -keypath "Software\Intel\Difx64" ! DriverPackageInstall error 0xA IIF will NOT initiate reboot Exit code = 0xA ResultCode = 10

[idata]

After a Live Chat with a support guy (totaly useless) and some digging into the Intel's code I have come to these conclusions:

1. Code is a huge pile of crap
2. Service is unreasonably bound to WindowsBase.dll - which isn't present at Windows 2008 r2 server core
3. There is no command line utility
4. And code is crap

However, I've quikly created a home brewed command line utility that, for now, displays the arrays and their status. If/when the time permits and there is demand I'll expand it to provide remote management (from another computer), e-mail warnings,powershell support, etc.

Anybody interested?

Miha

[idata]

After a Live Chat with a support guy (totaly useless) and some digging into the Intel's code I have come to these conclusions:

1. Code is a huge pile of crap
2. Service is unreasonably bound to WindowsBase.dll - which isn't present at Windows 2008 r2 server core
3. There is no command line utility
4. And code is crap

However, I've quikly created a home brewed command line utility that, for now, displays the arrays and their status. If/when the time permits and there is demand I'll expand it to provide remote management (from another computer), e-mail warnings,powershell support, etc.

Anybody interested?

Miha

[idata]

Hi Miha,

I'm very interested in what you have so far. I came across the problem this way: My hyper-v Core R2 server has a new raid5 setup.. I wanted to test the hotswap so I took one disk out. Now it keeps showing me 'volume needs to be rebuild from within operating system', and I'm forced to boot into Windows PE or some other live OS to start rebuilding my raid. This tool is indeed GUI only, so doesn't work on Hyper-V Core R2.

I can't believe that this is how Intel wants their customers to recover from any disaster. I just pulled out a disk to test the raid, but what if a disk was to really fail in a critical environment running 20 servers on the hypervisor? The sysadmin would have to shut down service on all these machines and boot the hyper-v server into an OS that does have a GUI just to 'fix' the raid (Anyone with tips on that?), where the non-core version would just keep servicing while rebuilding..

[idata]

Hi Ralph,

So far I am listing the array and volume data. I don't do modifications for now because a) I didn't need it so far and b) I didn't have time to check what methods have to be called – IOW it is just a matter of my time to implement those :-) Actually in such case one has to issue the command to start repair and the thing is handled automatically from that point on.

I think you can handle rebuild in RAID BIOS (ctrl+i or something on boot) – I think there is no need to boot other OS. But indeed either way is silly and not suited for anything serious.

As per real systems - I think Intel will just repeat their mantra - it is not supported on that OS bla bla bla - instead of providing a decent command line utility or, god forbid, a client-server utility.

[idata]

Actually I had to bring up the server again, so I didn't have time to fiddle around.. I just deleted and recreated the raid set and did a quickformat. Obviously, a bit more functionality in the raid bios would have been great, but it doesn't do anything more than create, delete, add repair disk, and reset all.. Something like 'rebuild' is only available through the gui. (Well, there is the "atacontrol rebuild" command on linux systems, but I couldn't find a ported windows version of that..)

Would you be interested in creating a project on this? I'd be happy to help with the coding effort. Anyhow, I would love to see your tool working..

Regards,

Ralph.

[idata]

Hi Affy,

I'll probably contiue working on it, just not right now due to an overload of my time :-)

Thanks for the feedback.

[idata]

Hello,

i am searching for a solution for check sometimes from commandline if the array is "well" on my hyper-v server with ICH10R controller.

Do you're available to share this homebrew tool? :-)

Thanks in advance!Ciao.

Alberto

[idata]

Yep, I will share it as soon as I make it good enough. Follow my blog at http://blog.rthand.com http://blog.rthand.com - I'll post about it when ready (read - I'd like to finish it today but I really don't have time to spare)

[idata]

Hi Miha.

It would be awesome to get that kind of cmd utility!!!

It will be very usefull and interest for me!

Do you have some versions of it? If you got it can you send some version by email?

Greate thanks in advance ( and sorry for my bad english )

[idata]

And an early alpha version is here.

Head over to

http://blog.rthand.com/page/RhIRSTTools.aspx http://blog.rthand.com/page/RhIRSTTools.aspx

And let me know.

[idata]

Miha,

I ran into a similar problem with an Intel DQ67OW motherboard. I could not get the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver to install on either Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 or Hyper-V Server 2012. I got a warning message about .NET (3.5?) not being installed and even though I found some steps that seemed to install .NET I still could not get IRST to install. It seemed as though something related to the GUI was missing from the Hyper-V Server Core installation? (As you described.) I tried contacting Intel, but their only response was that their IRST software was not designed to work with a server OS.

I have not tried using your tool, but I did find one work around. The older Matrix Storage Manager will install (8.9.0.1023 was the final version I saw on Intel's website) . I setup a batch file to run the .EXE file and it seems to work. I don't know if any features are missing, but I am able to remotely connect to the Hyper-V server and see the status of the RAID array. Which was good enough for my needs.

I recently found that the newer Ivy Bridge CPUs don't seem to work with the Q67 chipset. (I assume a BIOS update would be needed? But one is not currently available.) I am hoping that the same MSM option will still work with the newer Q67 motherboards. I'm guessing IRST won't install on a Q67 motherboard either ,,, since this appears to be a software problem. I couldn't find anything that described the type of RAID controller on a Q67 motherboard. Is it ICH10 like Q67? If the RAID controller has been upgraded from the Q67 then I suspect I may not be able to get MSM to install either?

I have not been able to find any information about whether or not anyone has been able to get an Intel Server motherboard (such as S1200BT) to work with Hyper-V Server Core (either 2008 or 2012) and use the IRST or MSM tools.