Dell server - Storage controller battery warning

[theo_logical]

I'm getting the following email alert from one of my Dell R620 Poweredge servers.

 

Message from server: Storage Controller Battery Warning

 

I gather it's not terribly urgent, but best not to leave it too long. Does anyone know what kind of battery it is? Can I pop dont to the newsagents and buy one?

 

Thanks

[mrtechsystems]

https://bestbattery.biz/DELL-PowerEdge-R620-RAID-CMOS-RTC-PLC-Batteries.html

 

I am assumuning it's for the raid card have you run Dell Open Manage on Server

[twin--turbo]

the battery is for the write cache, if the battery fails then the write cache is disabled. It will impact performance but probably not noticeably.

 

TT

[pete]

^ You've gone into OpenManage to check it's not the "hey I've decided to do a battery test / charge the battery" warning? Which is benign (provided it passes the test).

[PotNoodleTech]

the battery is for the write cache, if the battery fails then the write cache is disabled. It will impact performance but probably not noticeably.

 

TT

 

Unless the array was set up to always use write cache even with no battery - in which case the failed battery will be putting you're array and data at risk if you have a power cut. It depends how the array was configured originally!

 

Personally I would get it sorted ASAP just incase.

[Geoff]

Battery backup on the raid card write cache isn't a big deal if you have the server on a UPS. You can run without it. The server obviously doesn't know it's attached to a UPS so will complain ofc. Obviously for the paranoid have both your battery backed write cache and a UPS. It depends on the value of the data on the server I suppose.

[theo_logical]

Thanks for the replies.

 

Dell sent an engineer out next day to replace the entire controller. Brilliant service from Dell.

 

Odd thing was that there was no indication of a problem within iDrac or Openmanage.

[PotNoodleTech]

I've found dell to be good too they even send an engineer out to replace just a laptop hard drive.