7.1.4. Storage Devices

This page presents information about hard drives and RAIDs connected to your recorder. You can visualize the amount of free and used space, the serial number of disk drives, and RAID Configuration and settings. The “Refresh” button is used to refresh the information provided on the page. After the page loads, you will see at the top of the page a Hard Drive Icon representing your RAID or SAN along with a description of what type of storage device your recorder has installed (Hardware RAID, Software RAID, or SAN). To the right of the icon will be a status indicator if the drive is degraded or rebuilding. The red text DEGRADED is displayed if the RAID is currently running in a degraded state. If the RAID is rebuilding, the yellow text ‘REBUILDING’ will be displayed as well as the current percentage of the rebuild that is complete. When a RAID is degraded, there is no data redundancy so it is important to replace the failed drive as soon as possible. Also displayed is an indicator of how full the storage device is. On a heavily loaded system or a system that has been running for some time, it is normal for a storage device to appear as full or almost full at all times. This is because the recorder is usually configured to remove older, unprotected media records as new media records begin.

Storage Devices: Hardware RAID-1 Example

Fig. 7.6 Storage Devices: Hardware RAID-1 Example

To the left of the icon is an icon that looks like a plus sign. Click this icon to expand the storage device to see details about the device.

The detail view will display information about the sizes of each partition on the drive, its size, and how much free space remains. Above this is a ‘history’ button. Pressing this button will display the device history, which is a log of important events that have occurred on this drive, such as RAID Degrades. The ‘Disks’ heading which is only displayed for RAID Systems displays disk drives in the RAID. For each drive, the Device ID and Serial Number of the Hard Drive are displayed. In addition, the current status of the drive is displayed. The possible status values are as follows:

  • ACTIVE: The drive is currently active and functioning in the RAID

  • DEGRADED: The drive is in the RAID but not providing redundancy, either because it is failed or because it is still being rebuilt onto.

  • REBUILDING: A new drive has been added to the RAID or an existing drive is being synced into the RAID. A completion percentage will be displayed; refresh the page to see this percentage update as the rebuild happens.

  • REMOVED: There was a drive in this position (slot) in the RAID but it has been removed. RAIDs with REMOVED drives are by definition degraded. A new drive should be put in the REMOVED slot and added to the RAID as soon as possible.

  • FAULTY: On software RAIDs this state indicates an otherwise well-functioning drive that has been forced into a failed state by a user. This state is the first step in removing an otherwise functioning drive.

  • IDLE: The drive is not associated with the array in any way.

The ‘Options’ button next to the drive status will give you a menu of options for the selected drive:

  • History: View a history of important events that have occurred to the drive.

  • Remove: will remove the disk drive from the RAID if it’s a hardware RAID or if the device is already FAULTY or DEGRADED

  • Set Faulty: option to begin the removal process for a Software RAID system on a drive that is currently ACTIVE

  • Add: A drive that is IDLE or REMOVED can be added into a RAID to be utilized by the RAID

The serial number displayed for each drive in the RAID can be helpful in the case of a failed drive, to verify which drive needs to be replaced.