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Dell T620 only recognizes 4 of 8 installed HDDs
I purchased 7 additional 2TB drives for my Dell PowerEdge T620, which shipped with just 1 such drive almost a year ago now. My model has the 8 HDD bays in front and after installing the 7 new drives I note that only the four drives in the top row of bays are recognized by the system/BIOS. I'm running Ubuntu Server 12.04.4 and issuing 'fdisk -l' lists only the four drives, as well (sda,b,c,d). I'm hoping to set the drives up in a RAID 6 configuration if I can get the system to see eight -- is this just a simple BIOS setting change? Please tell me I don't need another controller or the like?! If it helps on the Dell Support side of things, my ST is [removed per privacy policy]. Regards,
Mark D.
theflash1932
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April 2nd, 2014 20:00
In the order details for your Service Tag, the only RAID controller listed is the onboard S110 RAID controller. The S110 is the lowest-end controller you can get. IF that is the controller you are still using, then the problem is your controller only supports a maximum of 4 disks, AND it does not support RAID 6 (only 0,1,5,10). You should be using the H700 for a storage system like that anyway (or the H310 at a minimum).
If you do indeed have a higher-end controller, then you are most likely missing the second SAS cable from the controller to the backplane.
Mark Drury
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April 2nd, 2014 22:00
@theflash1932, thanks for the info. I do have the lower-end controller (the S110) which, as you state, supports just 4 disks. Very disappointing because when I ordered this server I specifically told the sales rep we'd be installing all eight disks at some point. My bad for not being more diligent in checking what I actually received last year.
In any case, I had planned to use the Linux software RAID facility (mdadm) rather than that provided by the controller but I'll still look into upgrading the latter so that I can use all eight disks. Regards,
Mark D.
theflash1932
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April 2nd, 2014 22:00
The S110 is also a Windows-only controller, so even if you kept your current configuration, you would need to disable RAID and use the onboard SAS/SATA controller in non-RAID mode (if the server supports it).
Mark Drury
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April 2nd, 2014 22:00
@theflash1932, yes, I currently have the S110 running with Embedded SATA in the BIOS configuration set to AHCI, presumably the default for a 1-drive system as shipped. Are you indicating that there's another SATA controller (apart from the S110) which I may use with mdadm, assuming I disable the S110 in BIOS by selecting 'off'? Clearly there's a little more research I need to do here, and I have a ticket in with Dell support to run through my options, but if you know or suspect I can bypass the limiting S110 with my current configuration please let me know. Regards,
Mark D.
theflash1932
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April 2nd, 2014 23:00
Oh, I'm sure you are limited to 4 drives whether RAID is enabled or not, as the port likely only supports 4 drives ... I only mentioned the fact that the S110 controller was Windows only because you mentioned installing Linux, so leaving the S110 enabled wouldn't work (even more reason to upgrade the controller, given all the facts). It can be disabled in the BIOS under Integrated Devices.