SoftLayer API: Provision Server with Basic RAID Configuration

Question

How do you get the appropriate RAID configured on a server order issued through the API?

When attempting to provision a server using the SoftLayer API, we can never get it to properly provision even basic configurations.

After reading https://sldn.softlayer.com/blog/hanskristian/ordering-raid-through-api, the assumption is that if these criteria are true:

All disks are the same;
A RAID controller is selected with a specific RAID type; and
An appropriate number of disks are ordered

That a single RAID group will be configured as requested.

The problem is, we've ordered servers repeatedly using this recommendation and we've never received the proper configuration. To make matters worse, we've never received the same configuration.

Most recently, we wanted a server configured with RAID10 using 6 SSD drives. Here is the payload submitted:

{
    "parameters": [
        {

            "packageId": 271,
            "location": 449494,
            "quantity": 1,
            "hardware": [{
                "hostname": "server-name",
                "domain": "domain.com",
                "primaryBackendNetworkComponent": {
                    "networkVlanId": 1235

                },
                "primaryNetworkComponent": {
                    "networkVlanId": 1234
                }
            }],
            "prices": [
                {"id": 163397},
                {"id": 49447},
                {"id": 141807},
                {"id": 141807},
                {"id": 141807},
                {"id": 141807},
                {"id": 141807},
                {"id": 141807},
                {"id": 29691},
                {"id": 27597},
                {"id": 50243}, 
                {"id": 37622}, 
                {"id": 34807},
                {"id": 32500},
                {"id": 33483},
                {"id": 35310},
                {"id": 27023},
                {"id": 32627},
                {"id": 25014},
                {"id": 50223}
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Before submitting the payload, we checked it against https://api.softlayer.com/rest/v3/SoftLayer_Product_Order/verifyOrder.json to ensure that it showed RAID 10. It did.

After receiving the servers posted with this configuration, this is the topology of the RAID card:

TOPOLOGY :
========

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DG Arr Row EID:Slot DID Type  State BT     Size PDC  PI SED DS3  FSpace
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0 -   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 0 0   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 0 0   0   8:0      9   DRIVE Onln  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt -
 1 -   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 1 0   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 1 0   0   8:1      12  DRIVE Onln  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt -
 2 -   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 2 0   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 2 0   0   8:2      10  DRIVE Onln  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt -
 3 -   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 3 0   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 3 0   0   8:3      13  DRIVE Onln  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt -
 4 -   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 4 0   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 4 0   0   8:4      11  DRIVE Onln  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt -
 5 -   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 5 0   -   -        -   RAID0 Optl  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt N
 5 0   0   8:5      14  DRIVE Onln  N  1.091 TB dflt N  N   dflt -
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This doesn't even come resemble what we requested. What payload do we need for RAID 10 to provision it reliably and repeatedly?

Update: After checking servers ordered via the API with other RAID configurations, such as RAID1, this is not confined to RAID10. This problem exhibits with RAID1 requests with 2 identical disks.

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

In your payload is missing the raid configuration, it should be something like this:

{
    "parameters": [{

        "packageId": 271,
        "location": 449494,
        "quantity": 1,
        "hardware": [{
            "hostname": "server-name",
            "domain": "domain.com",
            "primaryBackendNetworkComponent": {
                "networkVlanId": 1235

            },
            "primaryNetworkComponent": {
                "networkVlanId": 1234
            }
        }],
        "prices": [{
            "id": 163397
        }, {
            "id": 49447
        }, {
            "id": 141807
        }, {
            "id": 141807
        }, {
            "id": 141807
        }, {
            "id": 141807
        }, {
            "id": 141807
        }, {
            "id": 141807
        }, {
            "id": 29691
        }, {
            "id": 27597
        }, {
            "id": 50243
        }, {
            "id": 37622
        }, {
            "id": 34807
        }, {
            "id": 32500
        }, {
            "id": 33483
        }, {
            "id": 35310
        }, {
            "id": 27023
        }, {
            "id": 32627
        }, {
            "id": 25014
        }, {
            "id": 50223
        }]
    }],
    "storageGroups": [{
        "arraySize": 1200,
        "arrayTypeId": 5,
        "hardDrives": [
            0,
            1,
            2,
            3,
            4,
            5
        ],
        "partitionTemplateId": 6
    }]
}

See the description for the properties here: http://sldn.softlayer.com/reference/datatypes/SoftLayer_Container_Product_Order_Storage_Group

"arrayType: 5" is the configuration for the RAID10 you can get all the RAID options using this method http://sldn.softlayer.com/reference/services/SoftLayer_Configuration_Storage_Group_Array_Type/getAllObjects

See this: Configuring Softlayer Disk Partitions at Order Time for to know more about the partitions templates and RAID configuration

Regards

So, SoftLayer's own documentation here is incorrect: https://sldn.softlayer.com/blog/hanskristian/ordering-raid-through-api? — Terry Corley, Oct 17 '16 at 15:56
That documentation states that if all disks are intended to be apart of the group that only specifying the controller is sufficient. — Terry Corley, Oct 17 '16 at 15:57
I do not know I always ordered RAID like the example I sent you, even the portal configures the storagegroups for any RAID configuration, you can see that by capturing the resquest with chrome's developer tools — Nelson Raul Cabero Mendoza, Oct 17 '16 at 16:19
I just tested this payload example and it does not work. The server does not get provisioned with RAID10, instead it is provisioned with RAID0. Removing the accepted answer because of this. — Terry Corley, Nov 16 '16 at 14:52
can you provisioning the server with raid10 using the portal? — Nelson Raul Cabero Mendoza, Nov 16 '16 at 15:18
please review if you got the same issue using the control portal, it maybe an issue with softlayer, becasue the JSON payload is fine and that is the way to order RAID. — Nelson Raul Cabero Mendoza, Nov 16 '16 at 16:15
I just tested and it worked for me, could you give me your orderID or the ID of your bareMetal server to take a look? — Nelson Raul Cabero Mendoza, Nov 18 '16 at 18:07

SoftLayer API: Provision Server with Basic RAID Configuration

1 Answers1