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Server Controller issue - All of the disks from your previous configuration are gone.
We have a PE R420, 4 300Gb Drives using RAID5. OS is Server 2016 Std.
The small controller module on this production server failed and we got a very similar one to replace it, a Perc H310 Mini. We plugged the controller in and after a short time the following message came up.
Foreign configuration(s) found on adapter
Press any key to continue or 'C' load configuration utility,
or 'F' to import the foreign configuration(s) and continue.
I had done some reading about migrating drives to an identical server, another option we considered, and it saying the configuration is stored on both the drives and the controller and you'd likely have to import the configuration stored off the drives into the controller on the new server when prompted. So without really thinking through the wording on the above message, I hit "F".
Then I get the message
All of the disks from your previous configuration are gone. If this is
an unexpected message, then please power off your system and check your cables
to ensure all disks are present.
Press any key to continue, or 'C' to load the configuration utility.
So I powered down rather than making a choice that would result in loss of our data. To make things worse our Windows Server Backup external disks can't be seen or used to restore onto a Hyper-V VM or another spare server using a Server 2016 ISO or DVD.
Thanks for any suggestions!
yabolts
4 Posts
1
May 18th, 2022 08:00
Late yesterday we decided to go with a suggestion we received on the Spiceworks forum. We pulled the four drives out about three inches and started up the server hitting F2 to get into the setup. From there Device Management and on to the controller where we did the reset, clearing all settings back to factory. We then went into the Ctrl-R RAID Setup and verified there were no drives. Then we powered down, plugged the drives back in and the server started, showing the four drives and one virtual device. Windows booted up and we are back in business.
theflash1932
7 Technologist
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16.3K Posts
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May 16th, 2022 20:00
I would try booting back up to see if you can get into the C (CTRL-R) option again. You may have better luck importing from there - or at least the ability to look around.
Can you provide more details on the process and what you are seeing when attempting to restore from backup?
DELL-Shine K
4 Operator
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May 17th, 2022 02:00
I agree with @theflash1932 on powering on and checking under Controller BIOS. Your replaced controller H310 Mini also can have some foreign configuration. In that case import of foreign configuration from H310 Mini will fail as drives not available on this system and one from existing physical disks will pass. What controller you had on the server before?
yabolts
4 Posts
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May 17th, 2022 03:00
You're right, the new controller came out of another machine so it had the other server's config in it. When I saw the message "Foreign configuration(s) found on adapter" after already hitting "F" I stopped because I didn't want to import the foreign config on the controller, I wanted to import the RAID5 config from the drives.
Is there a way to reverse the import? I've rebooted a couple of times and it always stops at the message "Press any key to continue, or 'C' to load the configuration utility." should we hit C and take a look, or spacebar and see if the server comes back up, or something else? We really want to preserve the config on the drives.
DELL-Shine K
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May 17th, 2022 04:00
You can press C and go to configuration utility where you can see foreign disk details and virtual disk associated to it
yabolts
4 Posts
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May 17th, 2022 12:00
I tried hitting 'C' and this is what I got:
Entering the configuration utility in this state will result in drive
configuration changes. Press 'Y' to continue loading the configuration utility
or please power off your system and check your cables to ensure all disks are present
and reboot.
I'm a little concerned about this message because it implies the drive configuration will be overwritten which is the opposite of what we want. Am I reading too much into this and just being paranoid? What would be expected to happen if we went the "Press any key" route?