Dell PowerEge 2850 and RAID

[Alex Zbyslaw]

Danny Cooper wrote:

>We have the PE2850 with PERC 4e/Di controller but this can not be monitored
>through FreeBSD, I am currently looking at a Drac4 to send traps out to
>another server for monitoring purposes.
>  
>
Thanks for the info.  Two followup questions for you, if I may.

1) Assuming you are using RAID features, what are you doing right now to 
monitor whether the disks are OK?  (Please feel free to say that you're 
watching the LEDs flash, but if you do, I think I'll start gibbering and 
drooling in the corner).

2) The only mention (other than Dell sales-brochure-speak) of the DRAC 
which I found was this, http://stats.kwsn.net/newfeatures.html, which 
implies that the DRAC is usable regardless of what OS you run.  My 
impression is that it is basically giving you a remote console which 
lets you at the innards of the machine.  You say you're looking at 
getting the Drac4 to do automatic notification, but can you, right now, 
just log in to it and tell the state of the disks?

Sorry if these questions are a bit basic.  I've never worked with Dell 
server kit before, or even a RAID under FreeBSD.

Thanks,

--Alex