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Inherited trouble....
Good day all!
Inherited some real trouble in the server room.
basics:
Power Edge R410 (circa 2012)
Currently running WinSmallBiz Server 2011 Std
4 - 500GB hard drives in RAID10 array.
PERC 3 (hardware card ...i think)
challenge:
1)Never worked with raid10.
2) Two (2) of the 4 drives have failed, and on more is degrading.
need to fix asap....
3) Server went down a few weeks ago... took 2 hours and 3 dozen reboots to get it back up.... taking server offline / shutdown.. probably not good option at this point...
have tried the following already....
Thinking, as with a few other raid type arrays, that the size may not matter of the HD... I installed a 1TB HD(SAS), into one of the dead spots. Spun up, recognized the drive. DID NOT recognize as RAID avail/compliant. (Again this drive IS an Enterprise type SAS, and stated as raid comp.) rebuild would not start auto, went through Dell OM to try it that way... no luck. only thing server would let me do is assign a drive letter and use it for back up. so used windows/OM back up configure, and got a good complete back up. Had another brand new hdd avail. so spun down the 1tb and installed a 2tb. same demise here... this thing is like a ticking time bomb.... looking for suggestions quick. do i try a 500GB drive to hopefully rebuild on its own.... or do i build a small server on the side connect the back-up drive restore from the back up and run that while taking down the old server to replace drives etc....? please help.. any ideas here would be great. thanks
j
DELL-Daniel My
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August 3rd, 2016 14:00
Hello
You need to find out for sure which controller you have.
Are they SAS or SATA drives?
You cannot mix SAS and SATA drives on any of our controllers that I'm aware of. You need to find out what the other drives in the array are.
If the operating system was viewing the drive and allowing you to assign a drive letter to it then the drive was in some form of RAID or non-RAID mode. An unconfigured drive will not be presented to the OS. If this is the S100 controller then it can automatically put new drives into non-RAID mode. In order for those drives to be assigned to an array you will need to remove the non-RAID status by deleting the array on it.
Thanks
jluckett
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August 3rd, 2016 15:00
@DELL-DANIEL MY,
thanks for the response!
So i went digging... the info was previously unavailable when we ordered up the new drive(s)...(with out taking the server down, as it was unclear which physcial drive(s) were dead/dying, so we didnt want to take them offline and risk shutdown.
Found the following info:
Hardware
330-7658 : SAS, PERC 6/iR Cable, R410
M800G Qty(1) ASSEMBLY, CABLE, RISER, CABLE HDD, R410
***************
341-9209 : 500GB 7.2K RPM SATA 3Gbps 3.5i n Cabled Hard Drive
DELL-Daniel My
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August 3rd, 2016 17:00
As long as they are the same type(SAS, SATA, SSD) and equal to or greater in size to the smallest drive in the array they should work.
Thanks
jluckett
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August 21st, 2016 07:00
So got the right drive in (all spec items matching..) installed... spun up.... "online".
NO auto rebuilding starting.... no options to select rebuild.... nada.. just sits there.... what do i do now? this server could crash literally at any moment... also the original "partitions" on the"C:" drive now show "olive color" in their setting (as the simple volume) instead of Blue i think they showed before.. not sure how that got changed over.... Please help.... what do i do next.... ??? thx!
theflash1932
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August 21st, 2016 09:00
You need to assign it as a hot-spare - Global or Dedicated to that VD.
jluckett
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August 22nd, 2016 11:00
Server Manager is only showing me the choice to "create" or "attach" VHD.... i saw in another post you said those were different items....
Most of this is a little beyond my scope. I am pretty good with small netowrks and building rebuilding machines.. but not critical data while its up and running.. and almost ready to die....
Is there a command line sequence to follow to get it to square up?
Open manage has an application on the server..BUT it doesnt open up to anything... it also has been downloaded 2 different times but not installed for various error reasons.. including but not limited to..... there is only about 500 MB of space left....
thanks again in advance for the help y'all.
j
theflash1932
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August 22nd, 2016 12:00
Yes, VHD's are very different. You should not - and cannot - manage individual drives using Windows tools. Sounds to me like the new drive was imported as a volume/VD and needs to be deleted then added as a hotspare.
jluckett
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August 22nd, 2016 12:00
so...was just able to open up OM Server Admin.
Have not been able to open in the last few weeks. right log in info,.... just would come up....
So in my VD list there i show
one line of Yellow caution sign.. (degraded) this is the RAID10 set up.
Several red "X"
and one green check listed by the new drive..but no options to execute task except delete..
Am having a heck of a time over here... trying to decifer all that it says and what is really here...
So, should i remove the drive i installed. delete it from the Virtual Disk List and then reinstall?
now that Open Manage is up... this in theory should be easier... (nothing on this dang thing has been simple or easy).
thx again!
j
theflash1932
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August 22nd, 2016 19:00
Yes, delete the virtual disk associated with the physical disk you just inserted. Then it will show under Physical Disks as Ready and you can assign it as a hot-spare.
jluckett
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August 23rd, 2016 09:00
Did that.
Still not showing as available. Also the drive is not showing as "RAID" its showing in most lists (if avail) as "NON-RAID).. certainly not the case with this drive.(or any that i have tried in here).
Is there a way to get to bios with out shutting down, or making sure that its being read correctly? I feel like i am doing all the right stuff... maybe i am just missing something here.... Should i take the drive out to another computer and reformat/remove any partitions, etc...? Then try to Reseat the drive? getting really frustrated and way closed than i'd like to be to d-day on this server.... i can just feel this thing crapping out is very eminent....
thx all!
theflash1932
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August 23rd, 2016 09:00
Yes, but it won't help you ... drives are not managed by the BIOS. OMSA will give you more access to the drives/arrays than the CTRL-R utility during POST.
I don't understand what you are saying here ... can you post screenshots of the PD and VD screens in OMSA?
jluckett
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August 23rd, 2016 09:00
I will try again to post screen shots.. i have not yet been successful with that, but will try again.
Basically The drive is not showing up how it is supposed to. Does not show as raid, hot-swap, or any available task to do in OMSA. just sits there. with green check mark ( i think) staring me in the face smirking... like "i'm here and you cant use me"... :-(
theflash1932
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August 23rd, 2016 10:00
You can't paste it. Save it as a picture, then upload the image using the Insert Media button.
jluckett
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August 26th, 2016 10:00
Good Morning!
Sorry for the delay. Please find the screen shots attached..(figuring out where to put them now....)
Still sitting at an impass with the drive not being raid recognized.
The files are all put into one pdf file. (the photos were huge). The new drive is in physical slot "0".... the only drive it allows me to do anything with is the 1 of 4 drives working.... lets start from the start on how i fix this... i am so confused with this dang drive right now... not even sure i remember how to type this post... lol.
also... @ Dell - Daniel My .... the s300 is the controller in there... what should i be deleting? then reassigning? the VD info says one thing but has another loaded... cant be sure whats being deleted or saved. review there screen shots also if you all please. thanks!
thx for the help!
J
1 Attachment
screenshots_file4.pdf
DELL-Daniel My
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August 26th, 2016 10:00
I can't tell what exactly is going on based on the information you have provided. Based on the information you have provided this is my best guess of your current situation:
You have an S300 with a RAID 10. You replaced PD 0:0 and the current physical disk status is:
0:0 non-RAID
0:1 ready (not a member of any array)
0:2 member of RAID 10
0:3 member of RAID 10
If my assumption of the current configuration is correct then you have two drives that are not members. I would suggest that you check the virtual disk menu in OMSA to verify my assumptions. If my assumptions are correct then this is what you should do:
Delete non-RAID virtual disk on physical disk 0:0. It should go to a Ready status at that point. You can then assign both 0:0 and 0:1 as hot spares to have them rebuild into the RAID 10.
Thanks