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38994
June 13th, 2009 00:00
Odd problem using UCS-51 or 5/iR SAS/SATA controller
I have just been trying to increase the disk size in an 840 server with the above controller.
Everything is working fine but I just want bigger disks. The controller has 2 mirrors. The 2nd mirror is a pair of 500GB HDD's. When CTRL/C'ing into the BIOS it reports the mirror as having 2 hard drives which both appear to be present. When you replace the 2 x 500GB with 2 x 1TB the BIOS reports controller port #2 as having no drive but port #3 shows drive okay. Swapping the drives still shows port #2 as dead (so it isn't a dead drive). Replacing the 2 x 500GB back again shows 2 drives as being present. This is odd - I can handle a faulty cable or controller but is difficult when the 2 x 500GB appears to work. At the moment I am working on the assumption that I do have a faulty #2 port and the only reason the 2 x 500GB drives work is because the fact that they both used to work has corrupted the controller somehow. This is a working server and I am reluctant to experiment further until I know the reason for my problem in case it all turns to custard (been there, done that before and am now paranoid cautious). So my questions are -
1. Is there any Windows management utility for this controller (at the moment, if the server isn't rebooted, I don't know how you would know a drive has died) ?
2. Has anybody seen something similar to above and is my assumption correct (that the 2x500Gb drives reported as being present actually aren't) ?
tommo666
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June 13th, 2009 04:00
There are sata ports on the motherboard which are enabled in the bios, for a quick test, plug your disks into these and boot into the bios. Hopefully your disks should be detected by the onboard sata. If they are then it may point to issues with the SAS card.
Enter SAS bios press ALT-N to enter Global Propertie on the page, look for advanced adapter properties, enter this sheet then look for PHY Properties. Here you can see what's attached to the card and if the drives are detected etc. Use ALT-N to navigate to the next PHY. You can restore defaults from most screens and bring the adapter back to factory setting.
chriscalvert
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June 13th, 2009 05:00
I did plug in a known good 1TB drive onto port #2 and got the same result. I also left the drives physically in the same position and swapped over the signal/power cables and #2 still failed so it is definitely following the port number. At this point I would have ordered another controller and cable set EXCEPT that the original 2 x 500GB drives (in two different positions in the BIOS) show as BOTH being present. I find it hard to believe that the BIOS works (on port #2) for the 500GB drives but doesn't work with 1TB drives. Unless the 500Gb drives, because they once worked as a virtual drive, still causes the BIOS to report both drives being present even though one has possibly failed some time ago.
Maintaining this server is an inherited problem. I have always had an issue with these types of Raid controllers and this one is especially bad because there appears to be no notification when a drive has failed. But I have to live with it. Maybe the controller will only handle drive failures and not internal controller channel failures ?
tommo666
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1.2K Posts
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June 13th, 2009 07:00
You could try flashing the firmware, also the 5/ir is a lower cost card and only supports a total of 4 disks and 2 virtual disks, basic mirroring or striping.
grm139
172 Posts
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June 15th, 2009 07:00
You can download "OpenManage Server Administrator" from the dell suport site, this tool will allow you to manage the SAS 5/iR controller.