Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Troubleshooting Tips for Degraded Volumes in Windows* Environments

Use this information to troubleshoot issues related to degraded volumes reported by Intel® VROC in Windows* environments. See additional troubleshooting tips in Troubleshooting Tips for Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) in Windows* Environments.

A RAID volume may degrade in the following conditions:

• RAID 1: A RAID 1 volume is reported as degraded when one of its members is disconnected or has failed. Data mirroring and redundancy are lost because the system can only use the functional member.
• RAID 5: A RAID 5 volume is reported as degraded when one of its members is disconnected or has failed. When two or more array disks are disconnected or have failed, the volume is reported as failed.
• RAID 10: A RAID 10 volume is reported as degraded when one of its members is disconnected or has failed, or when two non-adjacent members are disconnected or have failed. When two or more array disks are disconnected or have failed, the volume is reported as failed.

Follow the recommendations for the given scenario to recover a degraded RAID volume.

Degraded Volumes in the Intel® VROC Graphical User Interface (GUI) Application

Missing Array Disk

If the user can reconnect the missing disk, follow this procedure to rebuild the volume:

1. Power off the system and reconnect the missing disk.
2. Turn on the system. The rebuild operation will start automatically.

If the user cannot reconnect the missing disk but an NVMe* or SATA disk is available, compatible, and normal, follow this procedure to rebuild the volume:

1. Select the disk to use to rebuild the volume, and then click the Rebuild option. The rebuild operation starts immediately. The user can follow the progress by hovering over the notification area icon or by reviewing the volume status under the Status or Manage headers. Once the operation has successfully completed, the array disk and volume status will display as Normal.

If there is no available disk present, the user will need to power off the system and connect a new NVMe* or SATA disk that is at an equal or greater capacity than the failed disk. Once the system is back up and running the user can follow the rebuild procedure described above.

Failed Array Disk

Intel recommends that you rebuild the degraded volume to a new disk to return the volume and overall storage system status to normal. However, you can try resetting the disk to normal, which will prompt the volume to start rebuilding automatically. But if the read/write data access consistently fails, the disk will likely return to a failed state immediately and the user will need to rebuild the volume to another disk.

If a NVMe* or SATA disk is compatible, available, and normal, follow this procedure to rebuild the volume:

1. Under the header Status, click the Rebuild to another disk option.
2. Select the disk to use to rebuild the volume, and then click the Rebuild option. The rebuild operation starts immediately. The user can follow the progress by hovering over the notification area icon or by reviewing the volume status under the Status or Manage headers. Once the operation has successfully completed, the array disk and volume status will display as Normal.

If there is no available disk present, the user will need to power off the system and connect a new NVMe* or SATA disk that is at an equal or greater capacity than the failed disk. Once the system is back up and running the user can follow the rebuild procedure described above.

Degraded Volumes in the Intel® VROC Pre-OS

Missing Array Disk

If you can reconnect the missing disk, follow this procedure to rebuild the volume:

1. Power off the system and reconnect the missing disk.
2. Turn on the system. The rebuild operation will start automatically. You can verify it by entering in to the Intel® VROC HII menu. This menu is displayed as Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU for NVMe* devices, and Intel® VROC SATA/sSATA Controller for SATA and sSATA devices respectively.

If you cannot reconnect the missing disk but a NVMe* or SATA disk is available, compatible, and normal, follow this procedure to rebuild the volume:

1. Power off the system.
2. Turn on the system.
3. Go into the BIOS Setup and navigate to the Intel® VROC UEFI HII menu. This menu is displayed as Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU for NVMe* devices, and Intel® VROC SATA/sSATA Controller for SATA and sSATA devices respectively. The rebuild operation starts immediately in the Pre-OS. You can verify the rebuild process is happening by checking the RAID status in the HII menu. The status will show Rebuilding. Once the operation has successfully completed, the array disk and volume status will display as Normal.

If there is no available disk present, youwill need to power off the system and connect a new NVMe* or SATA disk that is at an equal or greater capacity than the failed disk. Once the system is back up and running the user can follow the rebuild procedure described above.

Failed Array Disk

Intel recommends that the user rebuild the degraded volume to a new disk to return the volume and overall storage system status to normal. However, the user can try resetting the disk to normal, which will prompt the volume to start rebuilding automatically. But if the read/write data access consistently fails, the disk will likely return to a failed state immediately and the user will need to rebuild the volume to another disk.

Follow this procedure to rebuild the volume using a new disk:

1. Power off the system and replace the faulty disk with a new disk that is the same size or larger as the faulty disk.
2. Turn on the system.
3. Go into the BIOS Setup and navigate to the Intel® VROC UEFI HII menu. This menu is displayed as Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU for NVMe* devices, and Intel® VROC SATA/sSATA Controller for SATA and sSATA devices respectively.
4. Select the failed RAID volume.
5. Select the option Rebuild. The user will be presented with a list of all non-RAID disks on the system.
6. Select the newly inserted disk on the system that replaced the faulty one. Confirm the selection when asked. The rebuild operation starts immediately. The array status will change from Degraded to Rebuilding. Once the operation has successfully completed, the array status will change to Normal.