How to Get SMART Data from SSD CacheCade on H710P in Windows Server 2019

Unfortunately, standard methods for monitoring SMART data from CacheCade SSD drives on the H710P controller in Windows Server 2019 are limited due to the specific operation of the hardware RAID controller. To obtain SMART data, you need to use specialized utilities such as smartctl, or access virtual disks through Dell OpenManage Server Administrator, as the controller abstracts the physical CacheCade drives from the operating system.

Contents

• Basic CacheCade SSD Monitoring Issues
• SMART Data Retrieval Methods
• Using the smartctl Utility
• Monitoring through Dell OpenManage
• Alternative Tools
• Setting Up Automated Monitoring
• CacheCade Recommendations

Basic CacheCade SSD Monitoring Issues

The PERC H710P controller is a hardware RAID controller that manages physical CacheCade drives through its own interface. The main challenges in monitoring SMART data are related to the controller’s architecture:

• Physical level abstraction: The controller hides physical CacheCade drives from the operating system, showing only virtual disks
• iDRAC limitations: As noted on Server Fault, iDRAC7 only displays general disk status, not specific SMART values
• CacheCade specifics: CacheCade SSDs operate in caching mode, which limits direct access to their status through standard methods

Important: The PERC H710P controller uses SMART data along with other parameters to determine disk health but doesn’t provide it directly in standard format.

SMART Data Retrieval Methods

There are several approaches to obtaining SMART data from CacheCade SSDs:

1. Through MegaCLI/MegaRAID Utility

Although the Dell PERC H710P controller is based on LSI, you can use LSI/MegaRAID utilities:

# To view disk status
MegaCLI -PDInfo -aALL

# To get extended information
MegaCLI -AdpAllInfo -aALL

2. Through SAS2IRCU

As mentioned in the discussion on Server Fault, there is a utility called sas2ircu:

sas2ircu 0 display

This utility is available for both Windows and Linux and can provide access to low-level information about the drives.

Using the smartctl Utility

One of the most effective solutions is to use the smartctl utility from the smartmontools package:

Installing smartmontools

1. Download smartmontools from SourceForge
2. Install the package on Windows Server 2019
3. Add the path to the utilities to the system PATH variable

Using smartctl

To access SMART data through the PERC controller, use the following command:

smartctl -d megaraid,0 -a /dev/sda

Where:

• -d megaraid,0 specifies using the MegaRAID interface
• -a displays all SMART information

Important: As noted in the discussion, “if you use a tool that polls SNMP from iDRAC, it may report a disk as failed if it’s not a Dell disk”. It’s recommended to use a virtual disk for monitoring instead of physical CacheCade disks.

Monitoring through Dell OpenManage

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) provides a more convenient interface for monitoring:

CacheCade Features in OMSA:

• Size limitation: As specified in Dell documentation, the total size of the cache pool with CacheCade is 512GB
• Supported controllers: CacheCade is only supported on PERC H710P, PERC H800, and PERC H810 controllers with 1GB NVRAM
• Unused space: The unused portion of SSD cannot be used as additional CacheCade or as an SSD virtual disk

Practical Steps:

1. Install Dell OpenManage Server Administrator on Windows Server 2019
2. Launch Storage Management
3. Navigate to the CacheCade section
4. Review the cache pool status and associated SSDs

Attention: According to the documentation, CacheCade virtual disks only cache read input smaller than 64KB. Self-encrypting drives (SED) or SSDs are not cached by CacheCade.

Alternative Tools

Dell EMC iDRAC Service Module

Although iDRAC has limitations in SMART monitoring as noted in the guide, it supports:

• SATA hard drives in both AHCI and RAID modes
• Integrated SMART monitoring capability through supported iDRAC audit methods

PowerShell Scripts

You can create PowerShell scripts to automate monitoring through the OMSA API:

# Example basic script for monitoring through OMSA
$server = "localhost"
$port = "1311"
$uri = "http://$server`:$port/storage/diskInfo"
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri -Method Get
$response.storage.diskInfo | Format-Table

Setting Up Automated Monitoring

For automated monitoring of CacheCade SSD status, we recommend:

1. Configuring smartd

After installing smartmontools, configure the smartd service for automated monitoring:

# smartd.conf configuration file
/dev/sda -d megaraid,0 -a -o on -S on

2. Integration with System Center

If using System Center Operations Manager, you can create scripts to collect data and send notifications.

3. Logging and Notifications

Configure regular SMART data logging and notifications when errors are detected:

# Example script for regular data collection
smartctl -d megaraid,0 -a /dev/sda > /var/log/ssd_smart_$(date +%Y%m%d).log

CacheCade Recommendations

Configuration for Reliability

As warned on Reddit, using a single SSD for CacheCade creates a single point of failure:

“If you use non-Dell SSD drives, the system administrator will complain that the drive is not a Dell drive”

Recommended Settings:

1. Avoid single SSDs: Use RAID 1 for CacheCade redundancy
2. Only Dell SSDs: As specified in the documentation, only SSDs with Dell identifiers are supported
3. Regular backups: CacheCade does not replace data backups

Sources

1. PERC H710p SMART data - Server Fault
2. Enhance Performance with CacheCade for Dell H710P, H710, and H810 Controllers
3. Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller H710P specifications
4. Server Administrator Storage Management - CacheCade using SSDs
5. S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring Tools download
6. Dell EMC iDRAC Service Module 4.2.0.0 User’s Guide
7. R720 server H710P controller cachecade - Dell Community

Conclusion

For monitoring SMART data from CacheCade SSD drives on the H710P controller in Windows Server 2019, we recommend:

1. Use the smartctl utility from the smartmontools package with the -d megaraid parameter to access low-level information
2. Configure Dell OpenManage Server Administrator for graphical monitoring of the cache pool status
3. Create automated scripts for regular SMART data collection and analysis
4. Avoid using non-Dell SSD drives in CacheCade to prevent false warnings
5. Implement RAID 1 configuration for CacheCade SSD redundancy

The main difficulty is that the PERC H710P controller abstracts physical CacheCade drives from the operating system, so standard SMART monitoring methods don’t work. To obtain accurate information, you need to use specialized utilities that work with the MegaRAID interface.