PERC S300 degraded

Thanks Neeraj. You are correct.  The reason why it's not apparent is that some the software/driver based RAID like the S300 do not report well from Windows and the failed drives will show as Online within OMSA. Usually the true state can be seen better at the RAID BIOS level.  But nonetheless, the drive should replaced. 

Furthermore, when you insert the replacement drive, you may see a Non-RAID VD that was not there before. If so, it must deleted before you can assign it as a hot spare. You may still see the state of the drive remain as a Hot Spare within OMSA even after the rebuild has been completed when it is truly not. You may at that time, unassign the false hot spare status to avoid confusion. 

Hello!!

I beleive Your Virtual disk state is Degarded because as you have mentioned disk 0:2 is failed. we would suggest you to replace the disk 0:2 with new ready disk with equal or greater capacity and assgin that particular disk as a Global hotspare.Rebuild operation will take place and once rebuilding is completed. your Virtual disk state will Optimal/online.

You need to install OMSA for assgning the Hotspare, if you want to perform online on top of the operating system. you can download OMSA from the Dell support site (http://support.dell.com/)

Have you created Virtual disk(Virtual disk whick is degraded) with disk 0:2? what RAID level is this?

please let me know if you have any question.

Thanks, Neeraj

I also have a DELL T410 PERC S300 in RAID-5 array with 5 physical disks.  The user the server was being sluggish so it was rebooted, not sure if it was gracefully or just turned off.  The server now will not boot to the desktop, only to system recovery, of which no system image disk was created.  I can get into the Ctrl-M and see the message that the Virtual Disk is degraded and I could see which disk needs replaced, but I couldn't find an option to take it offline.  I powered down the server, disconnected the bad drive, then powered up the server hoping I could at least get to the desktop but no luck.  Powered down again, reconnected bad drive, powered up and the drive is now in a ready status.  I tried to make it a hot spare but no luck.  The key for making it a hot spare is , is that the Insert key?  Anyway, another drive is on the way but I have a feeling this won't fix my issue.  All the info I've seen for replacing a RAID 5 disk includes using OpenManage which of course I cannot access.  Any input would be appreciated.

Hello,

Sorry to hear about your array issue. It is actually CTRL-R for the S300 BIOS configuration utility.  The offline option will only work if the drive was possibly in Predictive fail status and was still online.  If the drive had fully failed, which this case, it has since the VD is in a known degraded status.

You are correct about assigning the hot spare...the key is the Insert key.  It would be to select, , then to confirm.  If the drive was bad, it may only temporarily show as ready drive, but it will be in vain. Keep in mind, this is driver based controller, any activity like assign hot spares will not actually do any until it boots to the OS where the OS driver begin the process. 

You are also correct that the replacement drive may not fix that issue since the RAID should run just fine with 1 bad drive.  There is obviously an issue the Boot components. The OS may be corrupt.  The Array striping may also be corrupt also. You may use any OS media on the same architecture to launch in the Recovery Environment.  

Here is a good starting place if attempting to do an 2008 OS repair. 
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4162.windows-server-2008-repair-steps-for-no-boot-issues.aspx

Outside of that you should double check your boot order, and run the F10 USC diagnostics to confirm the bad drive, or multiple bad drives before spending time on the OS repair.

 Let me know if you have further questions.