MegaCLI MegaRAID

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: megacli

Overview

Monitors the health of MegaCLI Hardware RAID by tracking the status of RAID adapters, physical drives, and backup batteries in your storage system. It relies on the megacli CLI tool but avoids directly executing the binary. Instead, it utilizes ndsudo, a Netdata helper specifically designed to run privileged commands securely within the Netdata environment. This approach eliminates the need to use sudo, improving security and potentially simplifying permission management.

Executed commands:

megacli -LDPDInfo -aAll -NoLog
megacli -AdpBbuCmd -aAll -NoLog

This collector is only supported on the following platforms:

Linux
BSD

This collector only supports collecting metrics from a single instance of this integration.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

This integration doesn’t support auto-detection.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Setup

You can configure the megacli collector in two ways:

Method	Best for	How to
UI	Fast setup without editing files	Go to Nodes → Configure this node → Collectors → Jobs, search for megacli, then click + to add a job.
File	If you prefer configuring via file, or need to automate deployments (e.g., with Ansible)	Edit `go.d/megacli.conf` and add a job.

:::important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

:::

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every.

Option	Description	Default	Required
update_every	Data collection frequency.	10	no
timeout	megacli binary execution timeout.	2	no

via UI

Configure the megacli collector from the Netdata web interface:

Go to Nodes.
Select the node where you want the megacli data-collection job to run and click the :gear: (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
In the Search box, type megacli (or scroll the list) to locate the megacli collector.
Click the + next to the megacli collector to add a new job.
Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
- Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
- If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

via File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/megacli.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the structure is:

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/megacli.conf

Examples

Custom update_every

Allows you to override the default data collection interval.

jobs:
  - name: megacli
    update_every: 5  # Collect MegaCli Hardware RAID statistics every 5 seconds

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

Per adapter

These metrics refer to the MegaCLI Adapter.

Labels:

Label	Description
adapter_number	Adapter number

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
megacli.adapter_health_state	optimal, degraded, partially_degraded, failed	state

Per physical drive

These metrics refer to the MegaCLI Physical Drive.

Labels:

Label	Description
adapter_number	Adapter number
wwn	World Wide Name
slot_number	Slot number
drive_position	Position (e.g. DiskGroup: 0, Span: 0, Arm: 2)
drive_type	Type (e.g. SATA)

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
megacli.phys_drive_media_errors_rate	media_errors	errors/s
megacli.phys_drive_predictive_failures_rate	predictive_failures	failures/s

Per backup battery unit

These metrics refer to the MegaCLI Backup Battery Unit.

Labels:

Label	Description
adapter_number	Adapter number
battery_type	Battery type (e.g. BBU)

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
megacli.bbu_charge	charge	percentage
megacli.bbu_recharge_cycles	recharge	cycles
megacli.bbu_capacity_degradation	cap_degradation	percent
megacli.bbu_temperature	temperature	Celsius

Alerts

The following alerts are available:

Alert name	On metric	Description
megacli_adapter_health_state	megacli.adapter_health_state	MegaCLI adapter ${label:adapter_number} is in the degraded state
megacli_phys_drive_media_errors	megacli.phys_drive_media_errors	MegaCLI physical drive adapter ${label:adapter_number} slot ${label:slot_number} media errors
megacli_phys_drive_predictive_failures	megacli.phys_drive_predictive_failures	MegaCLI physical drive (adapter ${label:adapter_number} slot ${label:slot_number}) predictive failures
megacli_bbu_charge	megacli.bbu_charge	MegaCLI Backup Battery Unit (adapter ${label:adapter_number}) average charge over the last minute
megacli_bbu_recharge_cycles	megacli.bbu_recharge_cycles	MegaCLI Backup Battery Unit (adapter ${label:adapter_number}) average charge over the last minute

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.

To troubleshoot issues with the megacli collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output should give you clues as to why the collector isn’t working.

Navigate to the plugins.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that’s not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].
```
cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/
```
Switch to the netdata user.
```
sudo -u netdata -s
```

Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:

./go.d.plugin -d -m megacli

To debug a specific job:

./go.d.plugin -d -m megacli -j jobName

Getting Logs

If you’re encountering problems with the megacli collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:

Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.

System with systemd

Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:

journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep megacli

System without systemd

Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector’s name:

grep megacli /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.

Docker Container

If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named “netdata” (replace if different), use this command:

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep megacli

Industry

Technology

Use cases