PowerEdge430 - BIOS can detect SSD but OS installer cannot

Question

I have a Samsung SSD 860 EVO 2.5' SATA III 500GB which I'm trying to use as the OS installation drive for a newly-acquired PowerEdge R430 with 8 2.5' drive bays. I've installed the drive in a drive caddy and installed it into the front panel. I am confident that the disk is connected in such a way that the machine can interact with it:The light on the drive caddy illuminates when the machine is turned on (and I can 'Blink' it from BIOS tools)When the Integrated RAID Controller is enabled:The 'Integrated RAID Controller 1: Dell PERC Configuration Utility' tool shows a 'Physical Disk' under 'Physical Disk Management' with the right size (and, when I click into it, the right Model). Under 'Controller Management', it shows Physical Disk Count: 1.System Diagnostics show a 'Pass' for the Drive (when Integrated RAID controller is enabled)However, when I boot from a (Fedora Server 38) USB drive to the OS installer ('Anaconda'), no Local Drives as a candidate for installation, and when I drop to terminal (with Ctrl-Alt-F1) `lsblk` does not show the SSD.I have seen some threads suggesting that it's important to 'turn on' SATA slots, but I'm not sure how to do so. In particular, in 'System BIOS  SATA Settings', I see slots A-J (i.e. 10 - not the 8 I would have expected), none of which are configurable:When Embedded SATA=Off or AHCI, all of them are set to 'Auto' (with the radio button greyed out) rather than 'Off', Model=Not Enumerated, Drive Type=Not Enumerated, Capacity=N/AWhen Embedded SATA=RAID, the Model/Drive Type/Capacity entries and the 'Off' radio buttons disappear, and only 'Port ......(o) Auto' is presentInformation:BIOS Version 1.2.6'System Utilities  Launch Diagnostics' shows 'No Hard Drive' detected when the Integrated RAID Controller is disabled. However, when the Integrated RAID Controller is enabled, the tests passes.Advanced description of the SSD from the Integrated RAID Controller:Certified: NoLogical Sector Size: 512BPhysical Sector Size: 512BSMART Status: EnabledRevision: 2B6QS6PXNM0TB517SAS Address: 0x4433221100000000Physical Disk Power State: OnDisk Cache Setting: EnabledAvailable Space: 465.250GBUsed Space: 0KBDisk Protocol: SATANegotiated Physical Disk Transfer Speed: 6.0Gb/sEncryption Capable: YesSecured: NoProtection Capable: NoWhen I try to run the 'Clear' Operation from the Physical Disk section of the RAID Controller (after converting it to RAID-capable), I get 'The Phsyical Disk's security properties are not valid for the requested operation.'. I don't know if that's relevant, but thought I'd mention it just in case.(EDIT:) I just noticed that there are sometimes two PERCs showing up in Device Settings:When 'Integrated RAID Controller' is enabled, 'Integrated RAID Controller 1: Dell PERC Configuration Utility' is the top optionWhen SATA mode is set to RAID, 'DELL PERD S130 Configuration Utility' shows up as the bottom option. Even when the Integrated Controller is disabled, 'View Physical Disk Properties' here shows 'Unable to display physical disk properties as there are no physical disks currently detected' (recall that that Integrated Controller does 'see' the disk)I have tried:Every combination of BIOS/UEFI Boot Mode, AHCI/NONE/RAID SATA Mode.Switching the Drive to RAID-capable and enabling the Integrated RAID controller for RAID SATA Mode, and vice versa.Putting the drive in a different bay.

Origin3k · Accepted Answer

The Perc H730 is a RAID Controller.... so you have to create one. With a single Disk you have to choose RAID0 for the VD(Virtual Disk). The OS Installer than will recognize the VD and you can install the OS on it.

A H730p supports Passtrough instead of doing a RAID. In this config the Controller will present the single drives as is to the OS.

The "S130" is the Software Controller.

Regards,
Joerg

scubbo · Answer

Thanks for the reply! I just booted and set/confirmed the following settings:

System BIOS > Boot Settings > UEFI (not clear from your reply whether this is correct or not - I'll try BIOS if this fails)
System BIOS > SATA Settings > RAID Mode
System BIOS > Integrated Devices > Integrated RAID Controller Enabled
Device Settings > Integrated RAID Controller 1: Dell PERC Configuration Utility > Physical Disk Management > Disk > confirmed Ready and RAID-capable
Device Settings > ...Utility > Configuration Management > Auto Configure RAID 0
Device Settings > ...Utility > Configuration Management > Create Virtual Disk > ...
- Select RAID Level: RAID0 (the only option)
- Select Physical Disks From: Unconfigured Capacity (again, not clear which of this or "Free Capacity" was correct)
- Select Physical Disks > [Press Checkbox by the Physical Disk]
- Virtual Disk Name: [arbitrary, I assume?]
- Virtual Disk Size: 465.250 [default. I'm surprised there's no need to leave an "overhead" on the disk]
- Strip Element Size: 64KB [The default - https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/428463-what-is-the-best-raid-strip-element-size-for-hyper-v-and-raid10 suggests this is ok]
- Read Policy: Read Ahead [default]
- Write Policy: Write Back [default]
- Disk Cache: Default [default]
- Default Initialization: No [default]

And now a Local Standard Disk appears as an Installation target in Anaconda. Thanks!

Origin3k · Answer

Youre welcome. RAID0 because the controller only have seen one phy. Disk and so more is not possible About the VD Size: You can edit the size by change the value

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

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