View, Create, Delete virtual RAID volumes with RACADM on an R720 server (Dell 12G)

Background
Yesterday I needed to setup an R720 remotely and it needed a new RAID volume created. The issue was that rather than the normal Enterprise license the server had an iDRAC Express license (no remote console) so it wasn’t possible to use the normal UEFI / BIOS wizard to create the disks. Luckily a GUI isn’t required and the disks can be created quite happily with RACADM.

Local and remote
RACADM can be used locally on the server and remotely. In the examples below all commands are done from a remote workstation across the network. It is also possible to SSH to the iDRAC and execute the commands from there (or from the server OS itself it it’s already setup).

Check the presence of virtual disks by using:
racadm -r -u -p raid get vdisks

In the below case the machine doesn’t have any virtual volumes yet:
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin raid get vdisks
ERROR: STOR0104 : No virtual disks are displayed.
Check if the server has power, physical disks are available, and virtual
disks are created.
No virtual disk data to display. The system is powered off, physical
disks are not present on the system, or virtual disks are not created.

If the machine had a virtual disk defined we’d see the below:
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin raid get vdisks
Disk.Virtual.0:RAID.Integrated.1-1

To delete an existing virtual disk:
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin raid deletevd:Disk.Virtual.0:RAID.Integrated.1-1

Then schedule the job:
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin jobqueue create RAID.Integrated.1-1
RAC1024: Successfully scheduled a job.
Verify the job status using “racadm jobqueue view -i JID_xxxxx” command.
Commit JID = JID_219611981076

Reboot server to execute job:
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin serveraction hardreset
Server power operation successful

Check the status of the job:
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin jobqueue view -i JID_219611981076
—————————- JOB ————————-
[Job ID=JID_219611981076]
Job Name=Configure: RAID.Integrated.1-1
Status=Scheduled
Start Time=[Now]
Expiration Time=[Not Applicable]
Message=[JCP001: Task successfully scheduled.]
———————————————————-

To view all jobs (results in a list of jobs and their status):
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin jobqueue view

To create a virtual disk / volume
Help will show:
racadm raid createvd: -rl {r0|r1|r5|r6|r10|r50|r60} [-wp {wt|wb}] [-rp {nra|ra|ara}]
[-ss {1k|2k|4k|8k|16k|32k|64k|128k|256k|512k|1M|2M|4M|8M|16M}] -pdkey:
[-dcp {enabled|disabled|default}] [-name ] [-size {b|k|m|g|t}]

So we need the FQDD of the Controller and also the list of FQDD:s for our physical disks.

Checking our controller FQDD:
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin raid get controllers
RAID.Integrated.1-1

Checking our physical disks FQDD:
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin raid get pdisks
Disk.Bay.0:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1
Disk.Bay.1:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1
Disk.Bay.2:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1

Example of creating the virtual disk with RAID0, write-through and no read-ahead (YES, IT’S ALL ONE LINE):

C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin raid createvd:RAID.Integrated.1-1 -rl r0 -wp wt -rp nra -name raid_0 -pdkey:Disk.Bay.0:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1,Disk.Bay.1:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1,Disk.Bay.2:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1

Example of creating the virtual disk with RAID0, write-back cache and read-ahead enabled (YES, IT’S ALL ONE LINE):

C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin raid createvd:RAID.Integrated.1-1 -rl r0 -wp wb -rp ra -name raid_0 -pdkey:Disk.Bay.0:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1,Disk.Bay.1:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1,Disk.Bay.2:Enclosure.Internal.0-1:RAID.Integrated.1-1

Schedule the job:
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin jobqueue create RAID.Integrated.1-1

Restart to execute the job:
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin serveraction hardreset

View the virtual disk once created:
C:\Users\Administrator.DSC>racadm -r 192.168.0.1 -u root -p calvin raid get vdisks
Disk.Virtual.0:RAID.Integrated.1-1