I have a Dell T7500 which I originally ordered with Linux and one SATA drive. I recently added a second SATA drive and setup a RAID 1 array and installed Windows 7 Pro. I also installed the SAS driver and the latest version of Dell SAS RAID Storage Manager. The T7500 I have uses the integrated SAS6/iR RAID controller.
I have had extensive experience configuring computers which used the Intel RAID chipset which is managed by the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (now known as Intel Rapid Storage Technology). This is a great app which loads on bootup and monitors the status of the RAID array. It also has several tools allowing you to rebuild an array from this app.
I was expecting similar features from the Dell SAS RAID Storage Manager, but have found it almost useless. Basically, it does not run when I boot the computer. I have to manually start it and then log in with a user name and password. It then only displays info, but does not give me any options other than to delete the array.
As an example, as a test, I removed one of my RAID 1 drives and booted into Windows 7. I never received a pop-up indicating that my array was degraded. When I logged into the app, it showed that the array was degraded as a listing in small print, but provided no other useful options. I then added a new drive and after rebooting, started the app again. It showed the new disk with a rebuild label, but no options to start the rebuild or its progress.
I wanted to check here to see if I am using the correct tool or if I need to do something to enable more features. This really needs to load on bootup and give an indication of an array problem.
Thanks.
Jim
