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Powervault DP600 - Rebuld Assistance Please
Hi,
After our second double hdd failure in 3 months, and our techy-minded individual no longer with us, can anyone please post a step-by-step guide (in baby-talk if poss) on how I rebuild my server.
Our system is 8x1Tb drives which I would like in a RAID5 and it is used purely for storing digitised images.
Basically my questions are:
I seem to remeber when I looked in the BIOS drive config that there were 2 virtual drives under the same controller but I cannot replicate this setup.
If I use the Dell System Rebuild Utility disc it won't allow me to create VDs greater than 2Tb so do I have to create 3 VDs of less than 2Tb and then do something in the OS to expand the amount of storage available to use? (My first attempt to rebuild saw us with only 1.9tb of stoirage space to fill up somehow.)
Our OS is Server 2003 R2 btw...
As I said, if there is anyone willing to post a step-by-step guide to getting my server back up and running in a language that a 5-year old can understand, it would be massively appreciated - especially the initial VD creation!
MTIA,
Lee
DELL-Sam L
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January 29th, 2014 11:00
Hello Lee,
Here is a link to our recovery guide for your DP600. It list out a few ways to try & recover your virtual disks and if you need to reinstall it also walks you through that as well. ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_powervault/powervault-dp600_User%27s%20Guide4_en-us.pdf
Please let us know if you have any other questions.
WellStumped
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January 30th, 2014 06:00
Sam,
Thanks for the link, however...
When I get to Step 10 of the OS reinstall I cannot proceed as there are no VDs present. The option to apply Hardware Config is slected but greyed-out while the Apply System Config button cannot be selected.
What should I have done previous to this in the BIOS?
I have 8x1Tb HDDs and the server is used for storing images. I take it I have to create a number of VDs in BIOS first - if so, how many?
Also is RAID5 still best option for one mass stoarge VD or should I look at RAID 10?
Thanks,
Lee
DELL-Sam L
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January 30th, 2014 12:00
Hello Lee,
I would check into the RAID bios & see what it has listed in there for your virtual disk. I am not sure which card that you have in your system but it should be CTRL+R to get into the RAID bios during post of the system. You will have to watch the post till you see it say scanning controller cards. You should see when it scans the expansion cards one that says something like PERC5/i. When it scans the controller card it will tell you the key stroke to gain access into the RAID bios, & if it is different then CTRL+R then use that key stroke to gain the access. Once in there you should be able to look into VD management & see what virtual disk were created & why they are not online.
Please let us know if you have any other questions.
WellStumped
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January 31st, 2014 01:00
Sam,
It is a PERC5/i controller.
There are no VDs set up as I followed the instructions in the guide from the link you posted. It does not say anything about setting up VDs in BIOS before starting anything else.
Also, the guide differed from the options available to me on the Sytem Management Tool and Documentation cd. We had Rev. A00 so I downloaded the latest iso from the Dell site yesterday and this looks pretty much the same as I was seeing on the other disc.
The RAID setup when booting from my cd is a completely seperate option and does not follow the procedure laid out in the guide. I tried to set up the following:
1 x 50gb RAID0 VD (for OS install)
7 x RAID5 VD (approx 5Tb)
But I also had to create a second RAID0 VD with the size set to fullest before I could create the RAID5 VD.
Having then followed the remainder of the instructions for the OS install, the process halted at 10% even though the server was left on overnight with a USB stick installed as the cd asked for. I re-tried again this morning with a different USB stick as I the first one attempts to install the Scandisk Cruzer utility when plugged in. The same thing happened with a message saying that the rebuoild had failed as it could not write the hardware config scripts.
As i type I have re-restarted building 2 VDs in BIOS - 1 x RAID0 and 7 x RAID5 but again, as I mentioned previously, I suspect that the when the time come to install the OS from the rebuild disc it will fail as it cannot handle arrays larger than 2Tb.
When we received the server it certainly had more than 2Tb in the array.
Lee
DELL-Sam L
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January 31st, 2014 11:00
Hello Lee,
I am thinking that there is something else that is going on with the system as the raid arrays wont finish building as they should have. Do you still have a support contract on the system or no. if you do then I would contact support as we will need to dig into the system to see what the issue is. If you want to you can send me a email message with your service tag & I can look it up for you.
Please let us know if you have any other questions.