It looks like whatever is housing your OS, or some component in the chain, has failed. The virtual disk may have failed, something on the backplane may be preventing drive communication, or the storage controller may not be working properly.
If you watch the server run through POST, it should at least tell you if the PERC and the virtual disks seem to be working properly or not. Depending on what controller you have, you'll get a prompt to use the configuration tool, as well.
Around the 1:02 mark, it shows your storage controller, the 6Gbps SAS controller, and provides a Control + C prompt to get view the configuration utility. I would go in there and see what the controller is picking up (or not picking up).
SAS topology should show you your drives, RAID properties, if I recall correctly, should show you all your RAID specific information. I linked to the manual for the controller below.
Then I would begin trying to determine why the controller isn't seeing your drives. If the drives are visible from the outside of the server, you could check for any amber LEDs to indicate drive failures, but I'd be looking at the backplane, cables, and controller since the drives communicate through those.
You might look at testing these drives in another server, or another drive in this one to try to begin fault isolation.
Not to any sufficient degree to me. I'll say that I'm highly suspicious of the backplane because I would expect power LEDs to at least light up. You can try reseating the drives and backplane cables to see if the reconnection helps.
In order to make any firm statement though, we really need to either test components in another system, or known good components in this one. Without that, you can end up swapping excess parts. On the other hand, you can probably also find used backplanes, cables, and controllers pretty inexpensively, should it come down to that.
SAS and SATA implement different communication protocols. I'm not aware of any way to have a SATA controller do anything with a SAS drive, unfortunately. If you have any other systems with PERCs, those are going to be SAS controllers. I can't really think of anything else to suggest, though.
Now that I am getting close to getting back into the office... is there an expansion card of some sort that would allow me to plug in this SAS hard drive into a SATA system? Unfortunately, this is the only DELL equipment we own that is SAS. I do not really care about saving the server, just getting the data from the drive.
Dell-DylanJ
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April 3rd, 2020 15:00
It looks like whatever is housing your OS, or some component in the chain, has failed. The virtual disk may have failed, something on the backplane may be preventing drive communication, or the storage controller may not be working properly.
If you watch the server run through POST, it should at least tell you if the PERC and the virtual disks seem to be working properly or not. Depending on what controller you have, you'll get a prompt to use the configuration tool, as well.
chrisclark918
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April 6th, 2020 10:00
Dylan,
I am not seeing anything odd up until the point it says:
ERROR: Preferred boot device is missing, configuration is suggested!
Press any key to continue...
After I press a key, it continues until I see:
Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for system setup, F11 for BIOS boot manager.
I recorded the boot sequence and uploaded it to Google Drive:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HNCwy85P3p1y2t2k7
Dell-DylanJ
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2.9K Posts
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April 6th, 2020 10:00
Around the 1:02 mark, it shows your storage controller, the 6Gbps SAS controller, and provides a Control + C prompt to get view the configuration utility. I would go in there and see what the controller is picking up (or not picking up).
Dell-DylanJ
4 Operator
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2.9K Posts
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April 6th, 2020 12:00
SAS topology should show you your drives, RAID properties, if I recall correctly, should show you all your RAID specific information. I linked to the manual for the controller below.
https://dell.to/3bX2cSh
chrisclark918
7 Posts
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April 6th, 2020 12:00
I added three screen shots to the Google Drive folder.
Not sure what it is supposed to be displaying.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HNCwy85P3p1y2t2k7
Dell-DylanJ
4 Operator
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2.9K Posts
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April 6th, 2020 12:00
Then I would begin trying to determine why the controller isn't seeing your drives. If the drives are visible from the outside of the server, you could check for any amber LEDs to indicate drive failures, but I'd be looking at the backplane, cables, and controller since the drives communicate through those.
You might look at testing these drives in another server, or another drive in this one to try to begin fault isolation.
chrisclark918
7 Posts
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April 6th, 2020 12:00
When I go into Adapter Properties and select SAS Topology, I receive this message:
No devices to display
Press any key to return to adapter properties
chrisclark918
7 Posts
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April 6th, 2020 13:00
I am seeing no lights on any of the drives during POST (they are on the front of the server).
Unfortunately, I do not have another SAS server, nor any other SAS drives.
chrisclark918
7 Posts
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April 8th, 2020 08:00
Dylan, does the fact I do not see any of the lights on the hard drives light up during POST point to anything?
Dell-DylanJ
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2.9K Posts
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April 8th, 2020 08:00
Not to any sufficient degree to me. I'll say that I'm highly suspicious of the backplane because I would expect power LEDs to at least light up. You can try reseating the drives and backplane cables to see if the reconnection helps.
In order to make any firm statement though, we really need to either test components in another system, or known good components in this one. Without that, you can end up swapping excess parts. On the other hand, you can probably also find used backplanes, cables, and controllers pretty inexpensively, should it come down to that.
Dell-DylanJ
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2.9K Posts
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May 5th, 2020 14:00
SAS and SATA implement different communication protocols. I'm not aware of any way to have a SATA controller do anything with a SAS drive, unfortunately. If you have any other systems with PERCs, those are going to be SAS controllers. I can't really think of anything else to suggest, though.
chrisclark918
7 Posts
0
May 5th, 2020 14:00
Dylan,
Now that I am getting close to getting back into the office... is there an expansion card of some sort that would allow me to plug in this SAS hard drive into a SATA system? Unfortunately, this is the only DELL equipment we own that is SAS. I do not really care about saving the server, just getting the data from the drive.
/C