Aserapig_2,

 

When you clear or import the foreign you are not doing anything to the data on the drives, what it is clearing or importing is the raid configuration data. So when you cleared the foreign you told the controller to ignore the raid configuration data on the drive and to trust the raid configuration data on the controller. The foreign itself is triggered because the controller sees different raid configuration data on the drive that what it had itself.

Now if when the drive was foreign the Virtual Disk was NOT able to boot to the OS, then you would want to Import the Foreign. The reason being is that if the raid config data on the controller was correct, then the Virtual Disk would boot normally. In turn if the Virtual Disk is booting then you would Clear the foreign, as the controller has the correct config as it boots. 

Your option now would be to retag the Virtual Disk, which is the process in which the Virtual Disk is deleted and recreated using the identical parameters (Drives, Drive Order, Stripe Size, Cache Policies, etc.), but when doing so you do NOT initialize the Virtual disk as that will delete all data on the drives. When performing a retag it can result in the loss of all data on the Virtual Disk, so it is strongly advised to verify you have a complete, current backup of your data before performing the retag.

Hello Chris, 

Sorry for replying and old thread, but this information is very important and very well explained.

My RAID card controller heatsink dropped of from the card, and obviously it is dead.

It was an Avago 9271-8i.

I have an exact 9271-8i, but from LSI. It was not able to see my RAID6, marking all drives as "Not importable".

After a firmware update, It was able to see all the drives in green except one marked as "Rebuild", so the virtual drive is labeled as "Not importable" despite it is detecting two drive group (This is because the raid has two partition?)

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?attachments/notimportable2-jpeg.26520/

And this is my situation, what should be my next step? May be create a Virtual Drive with the two partition and sizes than I previously had on my server?

Is there any option to rebuild the disk at Slot4 to mark it in green or I need to repair my VirtualDrive to do that?

 

Thank you!

Hello matabufalez,

 

Thank you for explaining it is not a Dell server. That is the reason I do not recognize the controller interface that your image shows.

 

I may recommend contact a Data Recovery company if it is critical data and you do not have a backup.

 

For a Dell server I would recommend try to import the array with steps I provided.

Discard Preserved cache if the controller indicates it is present.

Retag -  A retag if done improperly will wipe the drives.  Check your controller or server documentation for that information.

I find this post and joined the forum, but that is not a Dell server, but I am navigating in every post realted I found at internet.

I will try detach all the units and clear the configuration. But the backup is one of our problem, since we never thought this could happen with a RAID6 and HotSpare unit, unfortunatly.

This is the current state:

 

Thank you very much

 

Hello matabufalez,

 

What is the server model you are working with?

 

I cannot get the image you linked.  Can you attach it here in the forum?

 

Also please attach a picture of the Dell PERC controller showing the label that has the part number that I can reference.

 

Initially I can recommend to shut down, unseat all drives, boot into the controller and clear configuration, exit and shut down.

Then reseat all the drives, power up and see if they import automatically or you have a foreign configuration you can import.

 

Please consider the status of your backup. If this is critical information and you do not have a backup you may need to consider a Data Recovery company.

 

If it does not import then see if you have Preserved Cache. If you do then you will need to discard: see this page

https://dell.to/3ZLIdQr