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Perc 6/i Foreign config on disk / how to clear a disk
Hello,
I have replaced a RAID-5 disk with a spare disk that already has a Foreign Config on it. I want to clear the config by hand, can i zero out the disk so it will be detected as empty? (dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/sda)
Best regards,
Eddy
theflash1932
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July 20th, 2014 07:00
Neither. It is not currently a participating member of an array, but foreign does not mean it is "totally not working". The controller detected a configuration on the drive that did not match the other(s) in the array, so it marks it as foreign until the admin can determine the best course of action for it. This is absolutely a dangerous thing to do (leave it to the admin to know the correct thing to do with it), but this prevents the controller from having to make live/die decisions regarding the data, making it the admin's responsibility to learn the technology required to manage it.
You have two options with foreign configurations:
IMPORT - Should only ever be used in the event of multiple drives being marked foreign simultaneously, including moving drives to a new controller/system, etc. and should only be used when an array is offline.
CLEAR - Should be used whenever the array is online and only a single disk is marked foreign (or multiple disks in the event it is a RAID 10/50/60 but the array is still online); this is usually the case when a single disk fails (or is failing) or simply goes offline as a result of a timeout, etc. and is often the case when replacing a failed disk in an array. Only after clearing the foreign configuration can the drive be made a hot-spare to the array in order to rebuild the drive into the array.
DELL-Chris H
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November 23rd, 2011 08:00
Eddy,
You will need to go to the controller BIOS (Ctrl-R) and from the VD Mgmt screen highlight the Controller 0 (if that is the channel the drive is on) and then hit F2. You will see Foreign Config listed there. Select that and then you will see IMPORT or CLEAR. Select clear and confirm.
That will clear the Foreign Config and place the drive in ready.
RobertSeattle2
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February 18th, 2012 11:00
I am just in the Control-R utility and I just can't seem to clear the foreign configurations no matter I do. I am not worried about losing any data.
theflash1932
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February 18th, 2012 11:00
The answer is it depends. Why don't you describe what your situation is, so we can give you a correct answer for your situation.
RobertSeattle2
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February 18th, 2012 11:00
Dell,
What does one do when you execute the clear and confirm it but the controller still shows 1 or more disks as foreign?
theflash1932
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February 18th, 2012 12:00
That is odd then.
Have you tried deleting any existing VD's? Do you have a PERC 5 or PERC 6? Older PERC 5 firmware was terrible at handling foreign configs. (I know the thread topic says PERC 6/i, but most of the time someone posts on an old thread there are major differences).
twalker1330
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June 23rd, 2012 11:00
Does this operation only clear the disks that are marked as foreign? We had 2 virtual disks on this controller, one RAID 1 and one RAID 5. We are trying to recreate the RAID 5 virtual disk which had multiple drive failures. But I don't want to lose the good RAID 1 virtual disk which is where the OS lives.
twalker1330
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June 23rd, 2012 12:00
Thanks for your reply. The RAID 1 virtual disk holds the OS (C: drive) and the RAID 5 virtual disk holds the data (D: drive). The RAID 1 array is fine. We had multiple disk failures on the RAID 5 array, three of them failed their SMART self test, and the other two also reported bad blocks in the logs. (Interestingly the RAID controller never did fail any of the drives, however one did go to a removed state. A tech reinserted it and it did manage to successfully rebuild and go back into an online state.) A very small percentage of the files were corrupt, and we managed to copy the rest of the good files to tape and also an external USB hard drive. We decided to just replace all 5 drives in the RAID 5 array at once and recreate the virtual disk from scratch. We shutdown the server and replaced all 5 drives and started it back up again. At this point 4 of the new drives showed as Foreign, and the other new drive showed as Failed. We apparently got shipped a new bad drive, because moving it to a different slot, and swapping out its cage did not help. So at this point once we get a good 5th drive, I want to clear the Foreign config on just the new 5 drives so I can create a new RAID 5 virtual disk and leave the existing RAID 1 virtual drive intact. Then we can copy all the files back from the USB drive and/or tape backup.
theflash1932
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June 23rd, 2012 12:00
Clear Foreign will ONLY clear present disks WITH a Foreign Configuration. If you had a foreign drive in your RAID 1 and a foreign drive in your RAID 5, it would clear them both. If your RAID 5 is offline, clearing the foreign configuration would only be done in a very small number of scenarios. If your RAID 5 VD is offline and you have disks showing foreign, "usually" you would import the foreign config. What exactly are you looking at presently (what happened, what have you tried, other details)?
theflash1932
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June 23rd, 2012 13:00
The RAID configuration is stored on the controller and on each disk. Every time the controller starts up, it looks at the disks and compares the config and signature from each drive with what it has stored. If it is different, then the controller will mark the drive as "foreign" and wait for you to decide what to do with it, just in case its contents are important. If the controller "forgets" what the configuration is supposed to be (or you are moving a VD over from another system/controller), then you want to import the foreign config. Other than that, if the VD is degraded or you are building a new VD with the disk(s), then you want to clear the foreign config so the controller can then use the drive. Drives will often show as foreign if they were purchased refurbished, new/used "pull" from another system - part of another array - even as a hot-spare. So, it is not uncommon for drives to show foreign.
I would remove the "new" drives, boot to CTRL-R and make sure to delete the previous RAID 5 VD, then put in the new drives and clear the foreign configuration ... then you should be able to create/initialize a new VD with the new disks.
If you don't want to wait for the 5th replacement drive, it is also possible to create a 4-disk RAID 5 now, then add the 5th disk when it arrives.
twalker1330
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June 23rd, 2012 13:00
As far as I know these drives are not used. It probably did not like that I didn't first delete the old virtual disk, or maybe that the one disk was dead. I will try pulling all the new drives and deleting the existing RAID 5 virtual disk as you recommend. My main concern was that the good RAID 1 virtual disk whose drives are not marked Foreign will remain as is, which by the sounds of your previous response should be the case.
Thanks again.
OomPat
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October 21st, 2013 10:00
hi Sorry Flash
So if i understand, if i have 1 VD raid 1 and i want to add another physical disk that shows Foreign, if i clear and import the foreign disk it won`t clear my VD Raid 1 right ? will it add it as a separate physical disk that i can use ?
thx
OomPat
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October 21st, 2013 10:00
thanks a lot i was worried i would lose all my data. thumbs up!!!
theflash1932
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October 21st, 2013 10:00
Clear OR Import ... you can't do both. If you are adding in a new disk and want to set it up to be used, CLEAR the foreign config, then set it up in a RAID array of its own.
theflash1932
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October 21st, 2013 10:00
Nope. What you do to one VD does not affect the other(s).