RAID Management for Intel D/W/S Express Chipset SATA RAID controller

[DGard4]

I have a RAID 1 volume on an Intel S1200BTL server board using the Intel Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA RAID controller (driver version 10.5.0.1029) that runs Windows Server 2008 R2.

Sitting in front of the server (something I do very rarely as I remotely administer this box), I notice that the RAID BIOS showed that the volume was "degraded". The BIOS utility only gives options for configuring the volume. I am looking for a GUI that will tell me what is going on with the volume.

I downloaded the RST and AHCI Driver and GUI installation and launched the "iata_cd.exe" from the GUI folder after extracting the download from Intel's site. This stated that it would install drivers as well as the software component. I installed it on a test box and it prompted for a reboot, which I was unsure of whether it wanted a reboot because of a driver update. The test box was a desktop that had the SATA AHCI controller on it, but it rebooted fine after installing.

This is a server for a small business and I can't take any chance that it will not boot back up because of a bunged driver. I need to get some visibility into what is happening with this volume. Any ideas the best route to go?

Thanks.

[KL2]

There's a RAIDCFG32 utility contained in the downloadable package from the following link that will show RST info from the command line: http://www.dell.com/support/home/gh/en/ghbsdt1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=8YK1C http://www.dell.com/support/home/gh/en/ghbsdt1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=8YK1C

I'm not sure if it's going to be fussy on the driver / software versions though, since you're at driver version 10.5.0.1029, and the package is 10.5.0.1027.

[DGard4]

Gize,

I tried that utility and it won't read the raid information off the newer driver. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

I've been doing some searching around and haven't been able to find anything to do this. Why does this have to be so difficult?!??

[KL2]

Bummer. I knew the CLI tools were fussy on version, but I didn't know they were that fussy.

So, only the driver was installed when this box was initially set up?

There's no:

- RST service (iastor*) running?

- RST Icon in bottom right corner?

- "Rapid Storage..." folder in Program Files?

If you find the same package version (10.5.0.1029), it should not require a reboot just to install the software, assuming the driver files contained in the package are an exact match.

If you find the package (10.5.0.1029), you could compare the driver file(s) dates and sizes those contained in:

C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\iastor.sys

C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\*iastor*

To extract the drivers from an iata_cd package the command is either:

iata_cd -a -p C:\Temp

or

iata_cd -extract C:\Temp

Use quotes in the file path if necessary.

[KL2]

Oye, so I made that more complicated than necessary.

There's a -nodrv switch for the iata_cd package -- it will install the software, but not the driver.

[idata]

Hello,

Our recommendation for this particular case is first installing the GUI from the following driver package:https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/20110/RST-and-AHCI-Driver-and-GUI?product=53557 RST and AHCI Driver and GUIInstall the application, schedule downtime and reboot the server, open the application and check the RAID array to determine which is the failed drive.

[DGard4]

Thank you. I will try this when I get the opportunity to take the server down.

[DGard4]

Sorry for the slow response on this. I installed the GUI version 11.6.0.1030 and allowed it some time to reboot on application of Windows updates. Getting down time with this server is difficult. The RAID controller driver that is installed is 10.5.0.1029.

The RST notification center icon shows that the service is not running. I can manually start the service, but when starting the GUI, I get "an unknown error occurred while running this application". An information event shows up in event viewer from the IRST_UI "failed to load storage data from the driver". After this happens, the service is stopped.

HWINFO64 shows the RAID array is degraded and only lists one disk attached. The RAID 1 array consists of Samsung 850 PRO SSD's and was installed about 10 months ago. I'm hoping that it is just a connector issue, but I'd like to see what is going on in the RST GUI.

Is this a matter of the version difference in the GUI and driver? Do I need to update the driver?

[idata]

Hello,

Our best recommendation is installing the latest driver and scheduling downtime to reboot the server.