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June 13th, 2013 13:00
R720xd XL - RAID H710 mini Controller
I need to understand why a disk will get put in a missing/foreign state and what steps I can take to get them back into the existing RAID configuration without data lose.
I've seen a system with SSD drives magically show 2 disk drives as missing / foreign. When it gets into this state I can either Import / or Clear the foreign bit. However when I clear the foreign bit it seems as if I have to trash my VD and create a new one which is not acceptible in my situation. I'm wondering if importing is a better option and what the caveats maybe if I import. I've also noticed within the RAID Controller settings an option to auto import a foreign configuration and wondering if this is something that I should just start to set as I've seen this happen on many of my servers.
I've really only seen this happen on my SSD's and wonder if it is the backplane connection for the SSD drives and the fact that the drives don't fill the trays properly for them seeding well in the back plane.
So what I need is a good understanding of this foreign / missing state (how / why the disk controller puts a disk in this state)?
What the best was to get this foreign bit to go away preserving data? (two options clear or import, it seems to my clearing it means I have to recreate my VD?). Is importing the option and will this likely cause future problems show corruption of data in future?
As well as anything else I should know about what one should do?
Lets assume their are no bad drives, I just ship the system to another location and when the server is started up, and two Drives in my RAID 5 set are in this missing foreign state....I want to preserve the data. What do I do?
DELL-Chris H
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June 13th, 2013 13:00
Dan,Rice,
The foreign configuration is a state that the drive will enter if the Raid configuration information on that drive is seen as different than the Raid configuration information on the controller it is assigned. With clearing and importing, you decide between each per scenario. For example; You have a 3 drive raid 5 with a single drive in Foreign state, if the other drives are online and all the data is present and working then you would want to CLEAR the foreign configuration (config data on foreign drive). In turn, if you have a 4 drive raid 5 and have 3 drives in foreign and the data and OS are inaccessible, you would want to IMPORT the foreign config.
For the scenario you presented with the 2 drives in Foriegn on the raid 5 you would want to go with an IMPORT.
The auto tool basically does what you would do manually.
Let me know if this helps.
theflash1932
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16.3K Posts
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June 13th, 2013 13:00
RAID configurations are stored on the controller and on the disks. Anytime a disk with configuration information on it is introduced to the controller, the controller will flag that configuration as "foreign" until the user does something with it (clear or import).
How you treat foreign configurations depends on the situation. IMPORT is used ONLY when a virtual disk is OFFLINE (2 disks offline in a RAID 5 or RAID 1 or when migrating a virtual disk to another controller). If the disk is inserted to be used for anything (adding to existing array, new array, hot spare, etc), then the configuration must be CLEARED. Clearing the config will tell the controller to delete and ignore it (why your VD was "trashed"). Importing will load the config and tell the controller to use it.
Which SSD's are you using? If not using certified Dell SSD's, then you may experience any number of issues, including random timeouts/offlines, resulting in foreign configurations. In any case, you should make sure your system/controller/drive firmware are up to date.
DELL-Chris H
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June 13th, 2013 14:00
This wouldn't be caused by type of drives. It COULD be from the server, controller, as well as the drives being out of date on firmware.
dan.rice
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June 13th, 2013 14:00
Great information thanks. 200 GB Samsung SSD's certified by DELL, so I'm sure the type of drive is not the issue (I could send you the SN of one of them as well). It does make me wonder since the SSD's are SFF disks in these large drive trays if they are more prone to become lose or something causing them to go foreign....however based on your description of foreign/missing I wouldn't think this could be causing it....-thanks again.