PRTG Manual: Dell PowerVault MDi Physical Disk Sensor

The Dell PowerVault MDi Physical Disk sensor monitors a physical disk on a Dell PowerVault system.

This sensor supports Dell PowerVault MD3000i, MD3420, MD3620i, MD3000f, MD3620f, or MD3820i, and might support other models.

For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.

Sensor in Other Languages

Dutch: Dell PowerVault MDi Fysieke Schijf
French: Dell PowerVault MDi disque physique
German: Dell PowerVault MDi Physikalischer Datenträger
Japanese: Dell PowerVault MDi 物理ディスク
Portuguese: Disco físico Dell PowerVault MDi
Russian: Физический диск Dell PowerVault MDi
Simplified Chinese: Dell PowerVault MDi 物理磁盘
Spanish: Disco físico Dell PowerVault MDi

Remarks

Consider the following remarks and requirements for this sensor:

Remark	Description
Performance impact	This sensor has a high performance impact. We recommend that you use no more than 200 of this sensor on each probe.
Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager	This sensor requires Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager on the probe system. You must install it on the probe system (on every cluster node, if on a cluster probe). For details about setup, see section More below. Create this sensor on a device that has the IP address of the SAN configured in the IP Address/DNS Name field of the sensor settings.
IP address	This sensor requires the IP address of the storage area network (SAN) in the settings of the parent device.
Dell PowerVault models	This sensor supports Dell PowerVault MD3000i, MD3420, MD3620i, MD3000f, MD3620f, or MD3820i, and might support other models.
Multiple drawers	This sensor only supports devices with one drawer of hard-drives. Multiple drawers are not supported and prevent sensor creation.
IPv6	This sensor supports IPv6.
Lookups	This sensor uses lookups to determine the status values of one or more channels.
Hosted probe	You cannot add this sensor to the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance. If you want to use this sensor, add it to a remote probe device.

Basic Sensor Settings

The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:

powervault

For more information about basic sensor settings, see section Sensor Settings.

Specific Sensor Settings

Setting	Description
Physical Disk	The physical disk that this sensor monitors.
Result Handling	Define what PRTG does with the sensor result: Discard result (default): Do not store the sensor result. Store result: Store the sensor result and the last response in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file names are Result of Sensor [ID].txt and Result of Sensor [ID].Data.txt. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites these files with each scanning interval. In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

Setting

Description

Physical Disk

The physical disk that this sensor monitors.

Result Handling

Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:

Discard result (default): Do not store the sensor result.
Store result: Store the sensor result and the last response in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file names are Result of Sensor [ID].txt and Result of Sensor [ID].Data.txt. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites these files with each scanning interval.

In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

Sensor Display

Setting	Description
Primary Channel	Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, PRTG displays the last value of the primary channel below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor. You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.
Graph Type	Define how this sensor shows different channels: Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel. Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic. You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).
Stack Unit	This setting is only visible if you select Stack channels on top of each other above. Select a unit from the list. PRTG stacks all channels with this unit on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Setting

Description

Primary Channel

Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, PRTG displays the last value of the primary channel below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.

You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how this sensor shows different channels:

Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

Stack Unit

This setting is only visible if you select Stack channels on top of each other above.

Select a unit from the list. PRTG stacks all channels with this unit on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Inherited Settings

By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.

For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.

Channel List

Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.

This sensor shows the status and mode of the physical disk in the channels as reported in the Modular Disk Storage Manager. Status and mode combined indicate the particular status of a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) controller physical disk. The table below provides you with the status description according to the Dell documentation:

Status Channel	Mode Channel	Description
Up status: Optimal	Unassigned	The physical disk in the indicated slot is unused and available to be configured
	Assigned	The physical disk in the indicated slot is configured as part of a disk group
	Hot Spare Standby	The physical disk in the indicated slot is configured as a hot spare
	Hot Spare In Use	The physical disk in the indicated slot is in use as a hot spare within a disk group
Down status: Failed	Assigned Unassigned Hot Spare In Use Hot Spare Standby	The physical disk in the indicated slot has failed because of an unrecoverable error, an incorrect drive type or drive size, or by its operational state being set to failed
Up status: Replaced	Assigned	The physical disk in the indicated slot has been replaced and is ready to be, or is actively being, configured into a disk group
Down status: Pending Failure	Assigned Unassigned Hot Spare In Use Hot Spare Standby	A S.M.A.R.T. error has been detected on the physical disk in the indicated slot
Warning status: None	None	The indicated slot is empty, or the array cannot detect the physical disk
Down status: Undefined